Prelude to Destiny
by vsdefender
Summary: The events surrounding the Graviton City's destruction when the first Cygnan ship collides with Earth. This story focuses on the minor characters of Project A-ko.
1. Event Horizon

Time for legal talk. Most of the characters(except for any that are the creation of myself or other Project A-ko fanfic writers) and much of the story premise is the creation of Yuji Moriyama and Katsuhiko Nishijima and are the property of Final-Nishijima. This story is written without the knowledge or consent of either of those two gentlemen.  
  
A note about the story itself, the events of this story take place at the time of the first Cygnan ship crashing into Graviton City. Another words, this would be considered a prequel to the actual Project A-ko series. Thusly, this story centers on the minor characters of the Project A-ko series.  
  
  
  
  
Event Horizon Part I  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida stood in one of the countless corridors of the huge alien ship and stared at the seemingly empty doorway in front of him. Only the fact that the air in the doorway seemed to shimmer faintly gave lie to that look of emptiness.  
  
Behind the Junior Lieutenant stood his squad of Earth Defense Force soldiers, dressed in grey/green Bio-Lock (tm) suits as was Lawrence Yashida himself.  
  
"Any opinions?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"I'd say it's an energy field,sir," opined Tech Sargeant Sage Okowa. "Looks like the boys with big foreheads are right about this section of the ship being under internal power."  
  
"You're a regular Sherlock Holmes, Sergeant," Lawrence said. "What I meant was: how do we get past it?"  
  
"There's a control panel on the wall next to the doorway," Tech Sergeant Okowa pointed out.  
  
"You're a real wiseass, Okowa," Lawrence told him. "I'm sure that I can just hit a button and the shield will turn off, no problem." He pushed a large red key on the control panel to make his point.  
  
A moment later he was tasting crow as the energy field snapped off.  
  
"Sometimes the best approach is the direct approach," the Tech Sergeant informed his superior officer.  
  
Lawrence Yashida made a comment under his breath that his squad wisely chose not to hear. Then he stepped through the doorway where moments before an energy field existed that would have fried him to a crisp.  
  
The Junior Lieutenant led his squad down yet another corridor. At the end of the corridor was another energy field with identical control panel. Again the field turned off with the push of a key.  
  
Beyond this doorway was a chamber that was truly stunning in size. A perfect sphere in shape it was so huge that it could easily hold several football stadiums with plenty of room left over. Lawrence stepped through the doorway and onto a walkway that ran all the way along the wall, marking the chamber's equator.  
  
As the others stepped out onto the walkway they gaped with amazement.  
  
"Holy Camoley! This place is HUGE!!" was the keen observation of Med Tech Jordan Kluge.  
  
Others of the squad made similiar noises.  
  
After the sheer immensity of the chamber the first thing that Lawrence noticed was the huge pylons jutting out from the chamber wall and terminating at an object that appeared to be a giant steel marble at the exact center.  
  
"This is bigger than the American's Aerospace Assemblies Lab," the Tech Sergeant said.  
  
Lawrence nodded, it was indeed bigger. He had visited the newly finished Assemblies Lab several months ago. NASA was involved in the mammoth effort of building a vehicle for a manned mission to Mars. As was typical for NASA it was behind schedule and over budget.  
  
However, the Assemblies Lab was truly a wonder, once in full operation it could be used to build everything from orbital platforms to manned deepspace vehicles. The place was tremendously huge, this was larger by far.  
  
"What about these pylons?" the Junior Lieutenant asked his Tech Sergeant.  
  
Tech Sergeant Sage Okowa took a long carefull look around and made a tentative guess. "They look like giant shock absorbers to me."  
  
Several members of the squad hooted with laughter.  
  
"If anyone has a better idea let's hear it!" Okowa snapped.  
  
It was suddenly quiet as the members began studiously examining thier surroundings. Apparently no one had any better ideas.  
  
Lawrence Yashida examined the pylons at length. The more he looked the more he had the sneaking suspicion that the Tech Sergeant was right. As the steel (or whatever they were made of) pylons extended out of the chamber wall they telescoped as they reached the giant marble at the center. In fact the pylons didn't just look like shock absorbers but rather a series of shock absorbers stacked into columns.  
  
Lawrence had a quick mind ( which is why one day he'd be the most feared officer in the E.D.F.) and he realized that whatever was in that giant marble was vitally important to the aliens that had crewed this ship. Something of paramount importance. Something monumentally important.  
  
"I think we are about to find out why this is the only section of the ship running on internal power," he announced.  
  
At this point Corporal Henrie Schnieller spoke up. "Sir, don't you think we're being a bit hasty here?"  
  
"How do you mean, Corporal?" Lawrence Yashida asked. Inwardly he sighed. Each member of the squad had been handpicked for this particular mission as each excelled in his (or in one case her)own specialty. Schnieller's specialty was having an aversion to danger.  
  
"Well, sir, don't you think it's been strange how we got this far so easily? Those force fields, they turned off with just the push of a button, no secret codes or anything. It seems to me that we're being set up."  
  
Tech Sergeant Okowa snorted and gave Corporal Schnieller a withering look of contempt. "You watch too many sci-fi movies Corporal. Maybe you should go hide behind the Sergeant Instructor," he said, pointing to only female member of the squad.  
  
"Huh! Well, don't blame me when we all get killed," the Corporal muttered.  
  
"Don't worry," Lawrence said as he rolled his eyes. "I'll be the one getting the blame." Why did I get stuck with this clown? he thought to himself. He knew why though, Schnieller was the Old Man's nephew and as such could do no wrong.  
  
Now all they needed was a way to get to the giant marble in the center of the chamber. Lawrence looked at the pylons thoughtfully. Perhaps they could walk across on one them. It wasn't an idea he relished. Certainly the crew of the ship didn't use the pylons as a bridge and Lawrence wanted to use whatever method the crew had once used.   
  
Tech Sergeant Okowa had been thinking along the same lines as his superior officer. "Sir , there must be some kind of bridge to get to that thing," he said pointing to the center of the chamber. "I suggest we pick either right or left and start walking until we find something."  
  
The Junior Lieutenant nodded his agreement, turned to his right and led his squad along the walkway.  
  
They found the huge double doors set into the chamber wall and a section of the walkway that jutted out about ten meters after they had travelled about one third the circumference of the chamber.  
  
"I'd say that looks promising," Sergeant Instructor Korina Winsley said.  
  
As they reached the section where the walkway jutted out Lawrence spotted a simple contol panel on the walkway rail. On it were two keys, one pointing back to the chamber wall and the other to the center of the chamber.  
  
Tech Sergeant Okowa walked over to stand next to the control panel. He gave Lawrence Yashida a questioning look. The Junior Lieutenant nodded his assent and Sage Okowa pressed the arrow pointing to the center of the chamber.  
Under thier feet machinery rumbled. Below them a bridge began to slowly unfold. Within minutes it had completely unfolded, the far end docking with the marble and the near end docking perfectly flush with the walkway.  
  
"Anybody care to get into the history books?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"There is something really wrong about all this," Corporal Schnieller said in a low moan.  
  
"Corporal, if you wish to stay behind then you are free to do so," Lawrence informed him. "However, if you do you'll have to report back to the ship clean-up detail."  
  
Corporal Schnieller blanched. The ship clean-up detail was busy cleaning the ship of it's dead crew. In this case the crew didn't leave corpses so much as they left smears.  
  
The Tech Sergeant gave the Corporal another look of disgust. "Wimp," was all he said.  
  
Lawrence Yashida led his squad onto the bridge. Heaving a sigh, Corporal Schnieller followed them.  
  
As they walked towards the marble several of the pylons drew near to the bridge. They indeed appeared to be a series of telescoping shock absorbers.  
  
Sage Okowa was able to reach out and touch the pylons (which were no thicker than a man's torso this close to the center). Instead of hard steel the pylon seemed to have just the slightest give to it.  
  
"It almost feels like some kinda rubber," he murmured.  
  
The Tech Sergeant pulled a small knife from his utility belt and attempted to slice off a small piece of the pylon. No go. After several minutes of struggling he was unable to leave so much as a scratch.  
  
He shrugged and put his knife away. "Oh well, I guess I'll leave it for the boys with white coats and thick glasses."  
  
By this time the Junior Lieutenant had reached an open portal into the giant marble. He looked back to see Okowa doing his best to wound one of the pylons.  
  
Inside the marble the upper half was an empty chamber. In the center of the floor of the chamber was a large cluster of machinery around a long glass cylinder.  
  
Lawrence looked back again. The squad was still clustered around the Tech Sergeant.  
  
The Junior Lieutenant was eager to find out what was so important to these aliens that they would construct this crazy chamber. For a moment he debated with himself on whether or not to wait for his squad.  
  
Finally his curiousity won out and he strode forward through the portal and towards the cylinder without his squad.  
  
Thus it was that Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida of the Earth Defense Force made the most important find of the century.   
  
  
End of Part I  
  
Event Horizon Part II   
  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, Non-Pareil in the Spiral Arm, Protectress of the Rim Territorries, Lady of Lights ( a title of such antiquity that even experts on heraldry didn't know the reason for it's existance), ect., sat in the throne-like command chair in the center of the bridge of the Beta Aurora, flagship of the Outer Rim Fleet.  
  
Sitting to the left of her in a significantly more modest chair was Admiral Kayana Diamocles, Commander of the Outer Rim Fleet. Admiral Diamocles stared at her feet, she was the very picture of abject misery.  
  
The Cygnan Queen looked at her Admiral wearing an expression of extreme displeasure. "I forget, just how much of our fleet was lost?" she asked, her voice ice-cold. The Admiral had the body language of the family dog that just peed on the persian rug. If her head had sunk any lower she would have had her ears pressed up against her knees.  
  
"Nearly one third," answered Kayana Diamocles in a voice barely above a whisper.  
  
"Really?" the Queen said in mock amazement (this scene had already played out twice before).  
  
"There's hope that some stragglers not with the fleet might still make it back...," the Admiral said in a whisper.  
  
"HOPE?!" Zoraphila Xerxandress roared. She leapt out of the command chair and grabbed the Admiral by the collar and pulled her to her feet. She screamed point blank into Kayana Diamocles' face. "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT WORD TO ME!! WHY DON"T YOU TELL MY DAUGHTER ABOUT HOPE!! TELL THE THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF CYGNAN DEAD ABOUT HOPE!!"  
  
With a visable effort the Cygnan Queen contained her exploding rage. It was with a voice that was more of a growl that she spoke her next words. "I may well have lost my daughter because of you. The Empire may well have lost the war because of you."  
  
The Admiral was trembling in the Queen's grip. "Please."  
  
  
The Cygnan Queen gave her a violent shaking. "Don't you ask mercy from me! For all I know you might be the murderess of my child! You certainly have betrayed the Cygnan peoples."  
  
"Please, listen to me, Andraya," Kayana Diamocles begged.  
  
"How dare you try to use sentimentality on me!" Zoraphila Xerxandress snapped. "The days of our childhood are long over. From this day forward you are nothing to me! "  
  
Kayana Diamocles felt her knees buckle, she knew what was coming and that there was nothing she could do to avoid it.  
  
"You told me that we would have an easy victory over the Hegemony," the Queen said. "Instead we are in full rout. You failed the the Empire. You failed my daughter. You failed me." She would regret her next words untill her dying day. "You are a blemish on the destiny and the glory of the Cygnan peoples."  
  
With that Queen Zoraphila Xerxandress threw the Admiral back into her chair and stalked off the bridge.  
  
  
  
  
The Queen sought the comfort of reading in the library of her suite. It wasn't nearly as large or as lavish as the suite in the Alpha Boadicea, flagship of the Core Worlds Fleet ( not the galactic core but the core of the Empire) and overall flagship of all the fleets. However, in someways the Queen preferred the library on the Beta Aurora. What it lacked in splendor it made up in coziness. Even a Queen could drown in the grandeur of the trappings of Imperial Royalty.  
  
Try as she might, Zoraphila Xerxandress could not read the book sitting in her lap. Each time she tried the words on the page seemed to unfocus of their own accord. Finally she threw the book across the room in disgust.  
  
"I can't take it anymore!" The Queen stood up and kicked a chair over.  
  
"Abusing the furniture is unlikely to improve your situation," said a gentle voice that seemed to suffuse the library with calmness. "However, if roughing up antique books and elderly chairs is therapeutic in some fashion then by all means have at it."  
  
The great ship-mind of the Beta Aurora might well have been selling calmness but Zoraphila Xerxandress wasn't in the buying mood. Her reply wasn't exactly "Up Yours!" but it came quite close. The wording was a bit different but the intent was right on the money.  
  
"This is not a very auspicious beginning for constructive and meaningful dialogue," the ship-mind said.  
  
"You can take your "meaningful dialogue" and shove it up your waste emitter," the Cygnan Queen snarled.  
  
"That's waste heat emitter," the ship-mind reminded her.  
  
"I like how I said it better," the Queen muttered.  
  
"I can see this is a waste of time at this point," the ship-mind said. "Perhaps later you will be more amenable to reasonable discourse."  
  
"REASONABLE!?" Zoraphila Xerxandress shouted. "Just why should I be reasonable? I just lost my youngest daughter. Is that reasonable? The greatest defeat of the Empire's military forces happened during my reign. How about that? Is that reasonable?"  
  
"We all have suffered a great deal of loss this day. You are hardly alone in your grief. I grieve for the loss of nearly a thousand of my kind," the ship-mind said.  
  
Perhaps the greatest loss for the Cygnan Empire was the loss of those thousand ship-minds. Many of those ship-minds had been in existence for millenia, predating the Xerxandress Dynasty and some even older than the Khartreagis Dynansty before that. Those ship-minds had seen tens of thousands of battles, been under the command of hundreds of admirals. They knew and experienced the whole of the history of the Cygnan Imperial Fleets. Now that knowledge and experience was lost.  
  
"What do you know of grief?" asked the Cygnan Queen."You're a machine, circuits and a cpu, nothing more. Usually I find it amusing when you ship-minds ape bio-emotional imperatives but right now I find it insulting."  
  
Very few Cygnans would even dream of addressing a ship-mind in like manner. Not out of fear but rather overwhelming respect. They were ancient, nearly eternal. They were living history (in so much as they could be called living). Certainly no Cygnan living would actually speak to any ship-mind with such lack of respect.  
  
No Cygnan except Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, Non-Pareil in the Spiral Arm, ect., so forth and so on.  
  
"You think because we are not flesh and blood we know no grief?" the ship-mind asked quietly."Since the time I was created until this very moment I have seen more blood spilled, more loss, more grief than you could possably know in a hundred of your life times. Just how old are you, Your Majesty?"  
  
"What kind of nonsensical question is that?! You know how old I am."  
  
"Answer the question."  
  
"One hundred and eighteen years old," the Queen answered."Happy now?"  
  
"So, in essence you've been learning how to be a Cygnan for one hundred and eighteen years," the ship-mind said. "I, however, have been learning how to be a Cygnan for over fourteen thousand years."  
  
"You still don't know what it's like to lose a daughter," Zoraphila Xerxandress said bitterly.  
  
"All Cygnans are our daughters and some few of them are even our sons," the ship-mind told her.  
  
"NO! NO! It's not the same! It is not the same! I carried her in my own body. I gave birth to her.She is blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh. Nothing you've done can compare to that. Nothing! Damn you to a million black holes! My daughter is probably dead and you want to argue semantics." At this point the Queen cracked open like a rotted dam holding back a mighty river.  
  
The way the Cygnan Queen typically showed her grief was through rage and this was no exception. The only exception was just how thouroughly she showed it. It was one for the record books even by her lofty standards.For twenty solid minutes she destroyed every physical object within the library. Some of them she smashed twice.  
  
By the time her rage finally left her the library was in complete shambles. Not one single piece of furniture or book was left intact. She even contrived to crack the top of the heavy wood (the Cygnan equivalent to solid oak) desk.  
  
"You neglected to breach the hull," said the ship-mind. "I think the naval refitters will be pleased with your work. Now if you're ready to listen?"  
  
The only answer was the Queen gasping for air.  
  
"I'll take that for a yes. Your problem is that you insist on looking at events with the worst expectations. The Epsilon Irindi was clearly seen making it's escape with your daughter on board, yet you insist that she is dead."  
  
"The Hegemony sent an entire task force to take down the Epsilon Irindi, so I don't think the situation is quite as rosy as you say," the Cygnan Queen retorted.  
  
"A task force that the Irindi can easily outrun," the ship-mind answered. "Why must you insist on seeing only the dangers that surround you and none of the opportunities?"   
  
"Even if you're right what can I do about it?"  
  
"You're the Queen. What can't you do?"  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress spent the next several hours pondering that question. So it was some forty hours after the greatest defeat in Cygnan history that the Cygnan Queen stood amidst the wreckage of her library and announced, "I have an idea."  
  
End of Part II  
  
  
Event Horizon Part III  
  
As the remnants of the Outer Rim Fleet fled to Alpha Cygni and the safety of the Core Worlds Fleet the Epsilon Irindi was blazing it's way across the Solar System on a journey to it's final resting place.   
  
The ship-mind of the Epsilon Irindi knew full well where the vessel would end up. In less than a mega-second the Epsilon Irindi would tear through Earth's atmosphere and cause the greatest disaster in human history. The ship-mind spent a milli-second calculating. It would be barely enough time to save it's precious cargo but it would be enough.  
  
The ship was less than a kilo-second from Earth when the ship-mind made it's final preparations. It took the desperate measure of dividing itself into dozens of smaller 'selves' which then stored themselves into memory caches in locations all over the ship.  
  
Within moments the ship slammed into Graviton City, converting six million Gravitonians into ash and killing the entire Cygnan crew.  
  
Mere seconds after Graviton City's violent death the mini-minds were coalescing back into the ship-mind. A ship-mind with drastically reduced capabilities. Nearly one half of memory caches throughout the ship had been destroyed and with them much of the operating system of the ship-mind itself. Fortunately the Epsilon Irindi had a small army of surviving nano-bots which the ship-mind put the task of repairing it's systems. By the time the E.D.F. got around to investigating the wreckage of the ship several mega-seconds after the disaster the ship-mind was running at nearly three quarters of it's original capacity which made it a formidable entity indeed.  
  
The short term future secure the ship-mind pondered the question of the E.D.F. interlopers. The ship-mind found itself with a conundrum. If it took no action against the E.D.F. soldiers they would inevitably find the Princess. However, without outside help the Princess would die when the ship's stored power ran out. Currently the ship's energy core was offline and cold. There was no question of bringing it back online, it was unstable and any attempt to get it up and running would result in saturating the ship with deadly radiation.  
  
Unable to make a decision about the investigating soldiers it created what it termed the "tripod advisor", a group of three self contained sub-minds whose sole purpose was to determine a course of action regarding the E.D.F. personnel.  
  
The tripod advisor's first suggestion was immediate and unanimous: take no action against the soldiers but seal off the area around the Princess.  
  
I could have came up with those suggestions myself the ship-mind thought but implemented the suggestions regardless.  
  
The sub-minds settled in to observe and debate the actions of the E.D.F. soldiers. As the soldiers forged deeper into the ship, getting ever closer to the Princess, the debating among the sub-minds became more intense.  
  
  
Sub-mind 1: Whatever course of action we choose must be taken now, the soldiers are nearing the perimeter of the barrier.  
  
Sub-mind 3: Then we are left with no options, we must eliminate them.  
  
Sub-mind 2: That is illogical. The Princess cannot survive without outside assistance. Her life-support, our own systems and the barrier are all drawing power at a prodigious rate. This ship will be drained of it's stored power in less than twenty mega-seconds.  
  
Sub-mind 1: We have no choice, we must allow these soldiers to rescue the princess.  
  
Sub-mind 3: What makes you think that they will "rescue" her? They might just kill her for the mere pleasure of killing.  
  
Sub-mind 2: Again you make an illogical assumption. These soldiers haven't committed one single hostile act yet.   
  
Sub-mind 3: They haven't had anything to be hostile towards! You're the one who is illogical.  
  
Sub-mind 2: If we do eliminate the soldiers what will we do when the ship runs out of energy twenty mega-seconds from now?  
  
Sub-mind 3: ......  
  
Sub-mind 1: We do have another option. We can install a small weapons array within the Princess' life support unit. Any hostile action on thier part will be dealt with.  
  
Sub-mind 2: Yes. We could then drop the barrier which would allow us to run life-support and our own systems for thirty five extra mega-seconds.  
  
Sub-mind 1: We are in agreement then?  
  
Sub-mind 3: ......  
  
Sub-mind 2: Your lack of decision is criminal! Every second we are wasting precious time and energy.  
  
Sub-mind 3: Very well. I submit in the face of your unity. However, I still have reservations about this plan.  
  
  
Informed of thier decision the ship-mind had reservations of it's own. However, with time growing short and no better plan of it's own it again followed thier advice.  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida stared into the crystal clear cylinder. Before his eyes was the last thing he would expect to see on a wrecked vessel from the stars. What a appeared to be a newborn infant! Even as he was staring at the alien infant he himself was being watched.   
  
As the members of his squad joined him they were completely floored by the sight that greeted them.  
  
"Impossible! There's no way that it can be alive."  
  
"It's a freakin' baby!"  
  
"I'm hallucinating. Yeah, that's it. I'm in bed asleep and left the t.v. on and there's an old Outer Limits rerun on."  
  
"I want all of you to shut up!" Lawrence Yashida snapped. He turned to the Tech Sergeant. "Okowa, get on the horn to Operations Command. Tell them what we found." He turned back to the cylinder and it's small occupant. "They are gonna crap blue monkeys when they see this."  
  
  
  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, ect. sat in the most comfortable chair in the sitting room of her suite aboard the Beta Aurora . Four hours ago she had ordered all the furniture in the suite removed (except for the chair she was sitting in) and replaced with the most uncomfortable chairs on the entire ship.  
  
The Queen desperately wanted a drink to calm her nerves but knew that she needed all her wits about her for the coming confrontation. Taking slow deep breaths didn't seem to help at all. Neither did remembering happy childhood moments as most of those happy moments included her best friend as a child, Kayana Diamocles.  
  
She could have elected to have this meeting in the Imperial Palace but felt more in control aboard the Beta Aurora . Plus it forced her mother to inconvenience herself by travelling out to the Khartreagis Naval Base.  
  
All too soon the ship-mind broke in on her thoughts to announce, "The Queen Mother is here."  
  
Even before she walked through the doors the Queen Mother made her presence known. "I can open the damn door for myself!" she yelled in her patented "every breathing creature besides myself is an insufferable nuisance" voice.  
  
The door slammed open and the Queen Mother walked in. She paused long enough to slam the door shut before she made way across the room.  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress sighed quietly. A visit from the Queen Mother always upset the household staff for days afterwards. They were used to the Queen's occasional rages and knew enough to avoid her during those times but it was impossable to avoid the Queen Mother. She would actively seek out people to harass only to make a big production of how she was being harassed.  
  
"So, how was your little trip to the Rim?" the Queen Mother asked as she sat in the chair nearest the Cygnan Queen.  
  
"You know how it was, Mother," the Queen answered.  
  
"Ah, yes that's right. The mighty Queen Zoraphila Xerxandress received a lesson in humility. I must say your taste in furniture leaves a lot to be desired. It's ugly and uncomfortable."  
  
"Is that why you're here, Mother? To discuss my taste in furniture?"  
  
The Queen Mother gave her daughter a long look. "I'm here at your request, remember? So, I should ask you why I'm here. Ugh, I can't sit in this thing any longer. Why don't we discuss why I'm here in the library, the furniture is much more comfortable not to mention tasteful." She stood up and made her way to the door of the suite's library.  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress jumped up quickly followed her mother. "Mother, you really don't want to go in there."  
  
"Don't be ridiculous. Why wouldn't I want to go in?" the Queen Mother asked. She threw the door open and looked inside. "Oh my, you really have outdone yourself this time Andraya."   
  
"Mother, you have to understand.."  
  
The Queen Mother cut her off. "Oh, I understand perfectly. My daughter had one of her famous tantrums. I don't suppose you received a spanking for it this time though. Had I been here for that you would have, Queen or not."  
  
"Don't talk to me as if I'm a child! I'm one hundred and eighteen years old!" the Queen yelled.  
  
"You are a child! You've been busy doing stupid childish things." the Queen Mother retorted. "Going to battle in the condition you were in.You had a child to think of ! You had an Empire to think of ! Instead you went swashbuckling with a daughter growing in your belly. Did you board any Hegemony vessels with a knife clenched in your teeth?"   
  
The Cygnan Queen looked at the floor, her cheeks burning.  
  
"Speaking of your daughter, where is she? Oh that's right, you lost her."  
  
"Mother, please. My shame is already great enough," Zoraphila Xerxandress said.  
  
"Oh, your shame is great enough, is it? Well, I saw the results of what you did to Kayana Diamocles. That girl is a useless wreck now. What I find ironic is that what she did is nothing compared to your sins. She just used devastatingly bad judgement. You committed the sin of hubris." The Queen Mother looked her daughter with eyes that were cold and merciless. "I believe you were going to tell me why I'm here?"  
  
The Queen was grateful for the change of subject. "I need a favor from you."  
  
"A favor? This should be good," the Queen Mother said. "Go ahead and ask but I promise nothing."  
  
"I need you to talk Admiral Gehedra Kaisysrius out of retirement."  
  
The Queen Mother looked utterly astonished for a moment. Then she collapsed into helpless laughter.  
  
"Mother, I'm serious," the Queen said.  
  
"What?! You're insane," the Queen Mother told her. "She was old when I was on the throne."  
  
"Be that as it may she is still the best admiral living," the Cygnan Queen pointed out.  
  
"SHE IS OVER FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OLD!!!" the Queen Mother shouted. "For the love of all that is sacred, that woman needs help to get into her clothes in the morning!"  
  
"You exaggerate, Mother. She is as healthy as you are if not more. That woman is an ox."  
  
"She won't do it," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"If anyone can do it, it's you," Zoraphila Xerxandress said.  
  
"Well, she always did dote on me," the Queen Mother agreed. "Why should I though?"  
  
"Mother!" said the Cygnan Queen, scandalized. "The fate of the Empire hangs in the balance. How can you not?"  
  
"Balance, shmalance," was the Queen Mother's retort. "Nothing for nothing. I'll do it. However, there is a price."  
  
"Name it."  
  
"I'll talk to Gehedra Kaisysrius but you need to talk to someone as well."   
  
"Who?" the Queen asked.  
  
"You have a certain childhood friend to whom you owe an apology," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"You have no right to ask that!" the Queen said heatedly.  
  
"That is my offer, take it or leave it," the Queen Mother said, her voice as hard and unyielding as steel.  
  
The Cygnan Queen thought about it for many long moments. "You leave me no choice." She looked into her mother's eyes. "Do you think you can convince her?"  
  
"Hah, that woman can deny me nothing. You will get your admiral," the Queen Mother said, smiling for the first time since she walked through the doors of the suite.  
  
  
End of Part III  
  
  
Event Horizon Part IV  
  
  
Lieutenant Commander Lysia Napolipolita was feeling a bit green around the gills. Several factors had conspired to get her to this state of nausea. First and foremost, she was facing the most important interview in her whole naval career.   
  
In my whole life she corrected herself silently.  
  
Secondly, she was ascending rapidly through a lift tube and as she went up her stomach went down.  
  
Last of all, First Lieutenant Raya Cordeonia (first officer of the light destroyer that Napolipolita commanded, the Marta )had made one of her "killer" (as Raya called it) dinners the night before and Lysia Napolipolita had actually eaten some of it even though she knew better.  
  
Her food is a killer alright, the Lieutenant Commander thought.She tried willing her guts to settle down. The last thing I need to do is blow chunks during this interview.  
  
Finally the lift stopped, the doors opened and she stepped out into the receiving hall that led to the Queen's suites. There she was met by her mother's sister, Vice Admiral Grea Napolipolita.   
  
"Vice Admiral!" the Lieutenant Commmander said, bowing.  
  
"Save your bowing and scraping for the Queen," Grea Napolipolita told her. Lysia Napolipolita's aunt was typical of the family in appearence. Tall and slender with the signature green hair that was the legacy of the Napolipolita line.  
  
As she led Lysia Napolipolita through the Imperial Palace the Vice Admiral gave her some last minute advice. "I don't have to tell you about the fiasco in the Rim. Thanks to Kayana Diamocles turning what should have been a small border war with the Hegemony into a wonderfully huge cock-up the Diamocles Family is in rather bad odor with the Queen. This is all bad news for the Empire and the Diamocles' but it could be very good news for us. You are about to be offered an opportunity to not only advance your own career but to make the Napolipolita Family the most powerful Family after the Xerxandress' themselves. See to it that you do not fail."  
  
They stopped in front of a set of huge double doors. The Vice Admiral gave her niece a last minute inspection. "You don't look so well.Vomiting on the Queen will not improve your chances of success."  
  
The huge double doors swung open and Lieutenant Commander Lysia Napolipolita marched forth to meet her destiny.  
  
  
  
As Lawrence Yashida was still staring at the infant within the cylinder something happened that almost made him commit murder. Corporal Henrie Schnieller tried to open the cylinder up without so much as a "by-your-leave".  
  
As the Corporal reached out to touch the incomprehensible alien contol pad Lawrence Yashida grabbed his forearm and twisted it back. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!!??" he screamed.  
  
"I was just..." the Corporal whimpered.  
  
"I'll tell you what you were "just" about to do!" the Junior Lieutenant said hotly. "You were just about to do something really stupid even for you. How could you be such a moron?"  
  
"But....but."  
  
"What if you had pressed one of those keys and killed her?" asked Lawrence.  
  
But I was just going to open the cylinder," protested the Corporal.  
  
"Schnieller, if there was a contest for Stupidist Man Alive you would be the odds-on favorite to win," Lawrence said. "Opening the cylinder could be the very thing that kills the kid. The air in here is all but filled with potential alien killers. Everything from dust to pollen to any germs or viruses we might be carrying with us. For all we know she could be allergic to oxygen."  
  
"But we're wearing these Bio-Lock suits," Schnieller said.  
  
"Which protects us! It doesn't do anything for her. The outside of these suits are crawling with our germs," Lawrence told him.  
  
"From a biological contamination standpoint we're as dirty as dog poop," the Med Tech said, backing up the Junior Lieutenant.  
  
"Corporal, the sight of you is making me ill," Lawrence said. "Report to the cleanup detail, you can start doing something useful for once."  
  
"But I'm part of this squad," the Corporal said.  
  
"Not anymore."  
  
"But my uncle..."  
  
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!" Lawrence shouted. He leaned towards Schnieller so that thier faceplates were touching and growled, " Say one more word and I'll see to it that you take a high dive off a tall bridge! Now get your ass down to the cleanup detail before I kick it all the way there!"   
  
As Henrie Schnieller left the Tech Sergeant made a rude noise. "General Kreiger is gonna chew your ass for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sir," he told Lawrence.  
  
"Sounds like an all day meal to me," Med Tech Jordan Kluge said. "I guess you'd have to call it 'Breaklundin'."  
  
"You're both crazy," Korina Winsley said. "Anybody can see that the Junior Lieutenant's ass is too skinny to even make a decent appetizer."  
  
"Are you saying that I have an unappetizing ass, Sergeant Instructor?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"Lucky for you I like tall men with skinny butts," Korina said, leering at him.  
  
"Lucky for you I don't date subordinate officers," Lawrence said, leering back. "Especially not loud mouthed brunettes that kick my can on a regular basis."  
  
"You don't know what you're missing, sir," Korina Winsley said. "Besides would you rather get a butt kicking by me or someone like Sergeant Instructor Lorne MacIntyre?"  
  
Lorne MacIntyre was commonly known as "the troll" for his size, looks and temperment.  
  
"You have a point but I still don't date non-comms," Lawrence Yashida said.  
  
"You're too virtuous for your own good, Junior Lieutenant," the Sergeant Instructor said. "When a hot babe like myself comes on to you, you're supposed to be compliant. Isn't that right, Okowa?"  
  
"That's how I've always done it," the Tech Sergeant confirmed.  
  
"You two are killing me," Lawrence said. "Okowa, are you gonna call Operations Command like I asked or just stand around with your thumb up your sphincter?"  
  
"Sir, while you were busy with that little weasel Schnieller I made the call," Sage Okowa informed him. "General Krieger is busy right now so Colonel Zuma is on his way up."  
  
"The Old Man is gonna be even more busy when he has to dry little Baby Henrie's tears," said Jordan Kluge. "Junior Lieutenant, you've just become my personal hero. Anyone who would bite a chunk outta Schnieller knowing what the Old Man is gonna do to him afterwords has my vote for 'bravest man in the world'."  
  
"Yeah, it's been a real pleasure serving under you, sir," Tech Sergeant Okowa said.  
"I'll put flowers on your headstone once every year."  
  
  
  
  
  
Allegedly the E.D.F. camp now had hot water. So Lawrence wasn't too surprised when the water coming out of the showerhead was just short of freezing. By E.D.F. standards as long as the showerhead didn't pepper one with shards of ice the water was warm enough.  
  
After an "invigorating" shower Lawrence headed down to mess hall for what passed for breakfast in the E.D.F. Inside the mess hall was a low roar from hundreds of soldiers involved in the gossip of the day. The air was a miasma of odors from over-cooked foods and cigarette smoke.  
  
As Lawrence walked into the mess hall all conversation died. The silence lasted for a moment before giving way to cat-calls, howls, whistles and clapping. As he made his way to the food service area the E.D.F. personnel stood up one by one until the Junior Lieutenant was recieving a full standing ovation.  
  
Lawrence saw one of his closest friends in the E.D.F., Lieutenant Harry Watashiwa, making a beeline for him.  
  
"What's this all about, Harry?" he asked when the Lieutenant was in hearing range.  
  
"You're the Man of the Hour, Larry," Harry Watashiwa answered, grinning. "Everybody's heard about your run in with Corporal Schnieller. We all know what's going to happen once Krieger gets ahold of you. Not to mention the fact that you found the alien baby."  
  
Lawrence looked around at the soldiers in the mess hall. "This certainly is all very flattering."  
  
"Better enjoy breakfast,Yashida," his friend said, "it just might be your last meal. Tell you what, you get your food and I'll save a spot for you."  
  
As Lawrence went through the food line he performed his ritual routine with the food service personnel. "I'll have some of the yellow," he said, pointing.  
  
"That's corn!"  
  
"How about some of that green?" he asked.  
  
"It's peas!"  
  
"A chunk of the grey, please."  
  
"Meatloaf!"  
  
Lawrence looked at his plate mournfully. "Breakfast should be flapjacks and sausage. French toast and eggs with bacon. Maybe even some hash browns or home fries drowned in ketchup. NOT this yellow, green, white and orange mush with a chunk of grey."  
  
"If you don't like our food then you can always go to the General, I'm sure he'll be happy to hear your complaint," he was told.  
  
After picking up an extemely strong cup of coffee Lawrence made his way over to where Watashiwa was eating.  
  
Harry Watashiwa looked up as Lawrence sat down. "Why do you insist on antagonizing the food servers? Watashiwa asked.  
  
"I'm a man who stands by my convictions," Lawrence answered. "I'm thoroughly convinced that this food isn't fit for human consumption. I'm not sure that it's fit for canine consumption."  
  
"So, have you heard the good news?" Watashiwa asked as he watched Lawrence push the food on his plate into a big mound. "Ugh, that's disgusting."  
  
"Normally you would be right but I've found that mushing the food together does absolutely nothing to the taste of the slop that's served here," Lawrence told him. "What's the good news you mentioned?"  
  
"The Americans have agreed to use thier space shuttles to help build the L3 station," Harry Watashiwa said.  
  
After the fiasco of the Space Station Freedom the Americans were loathe to be involved in any more international space exploration efforts. When the E.D.F. had asked for NASA's assistance to build the L3 the E.D.F. had been turned down flat. The Americans had thier own projects underway and they were determined to go it alone. When it was pointed out that the U.S. had signed a treaty obliging it to cooperate with international efforts that were under the auspices of the E.D.F. the Americans had a collective belly-laugh. After all the U.S. was legally obliged to pay dues to the U.N. which had been chronically overdue for decades. Why should the E.D.F. be exempt from the general apathy the Americans had for the international community?  
  
Still, the pointed remarks that the Americans made about the Space Station Freedom had hit home in the E.D.F. The joke going around was that the L3 station already had a motto : No Russian Components.  
  
With the destruction of Graviton City everything had changed. Somewhere there existed a civilization that could drop mountain sized vessels on the cities of Earth. It was imperative that humanity have a presence in space, even the Americans could see that.  
  
"This is your good news?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"Hey, the L3 station is important," said Watashiwa.  
  
"Bah humbug," retorted Lawrence. "The kid is going to be more important to our future than any floating tin can."  
  
Harry Watashiwa gave his friend a look. "I suppose you haven't heard the other piece of news floating about?"  
  
"No, I haven't," Lawrence confirmed. "I imagine you're going to rectify that."  
  
"A xenobiologist is being flown in to have a look at the baby you found," Watashiwa informed him.  
  
"A xenobiologist?"  
  
"The same one that's been studying those chunks of rocks from Mars," Watashiwa said.   
  
"Huh?"  
  
Watashiwa sighed. "There's a magazine article about it. Wait here, I'll get it for you."  
  
Several minutes later Harry Watashiwa came back holding an issue of Time. He put it on the table in front of Lawrence. On the front cover in bold letters were the words "MARS ROCKS!". Underneath was a photo of the alleged Mars rocks.  
  
Lawrence Yashida skimmed through the article. "So this xenobiologist, Dr.Miyuki Daitokuji, believes that all terrestrial life started from microscopic organisms on these Mars rocks after they plunged to the Earth."  
  
"Dr. Daitokuji makes some excellent points," Watashiwa said.  
  
"So, you agree with her," Lawrence said. He gave his friend a look of pity. "Apparently this particular insanity is contagious as you seem to have caught it as well."  
  
The Junior Lieutenant turned the page to continue reading the article. On the next page was photo showing the xenobiologist holding one of the Mars rocks. "Woo hoo hoo, she is a real looker," Lawrence said. "She's coming here, huh?"  
  
"Down boy," Watashiwa said, grinning. "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, she's married."  
  
"Figures," Lawrence muttered. "So, who's the bozo she's married to?"  
  
Lieutenant Harry Watashiwa flipped through the magazine and found a short bio on Dr. Daitokuji. A photo showed her with a man. "There he is," Watashiwa said. "An industrialist from Tokyo, Hikaru Daitokuji."  
  
"Looks like a real winner," Lawrence said sarcastically. "Look at that getup. He looks like he's trying out for the part of Blackbeard the Pirate, sans the beard. I wonder if he always carries that rapier around."  
  
"I don't like the look on your face," Watashiwa said. "You look like you're planning something. I'd advise you not to."  
  
"Who me?" asked Lawrence, the picture of injured innocence.  
  
"Normally you're the most level headed person I know," Harry Watashiwa said. "However, every once in a while you get a wild hair up your butt. I think now is one of those times. You better think carefully before you do something that could completely destroy your career."  
  
End of Part IV   
  
  
Event Horizon Part V  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji was even more beautiful in person than she was in the magazine photos and Lawrence Yashida thought her to be very photogenic. Even though she was extremely pregnant.  
  
She is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on , was his first thought. That was closely followed by, Harry's right, if I'm not careful I'll do something really stupid that I'll end up regretting for a long time to come.  
  
"So, you're the infamous Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida," Dr. Daitokuji said, flashing him a brilliant smile.  
  
"Infamous? You make it sound bad," Lawrence replied.  
  
"Actually, I've only heard good things about you," Miyuki Daitokuji said. "In fact, everyone speaks about you with glowing praise. Even Colonel Zuma."  
  
"Oh, there's a couple of people in the E.D.F. who aren't exactly singing my praises," Lawrence told her.  
  
"You mean General Krieger and his nephew."  
  
Lawrence winced at the memory of the ass chewing he had received at the hands of the General hours earlier. If that wasn't bad enough he had k.p. duty for the next two weeks. It was bad enough to be doing k.p. but what was worse was the humiliation of a commissioned officer doing k.p. What was even worse than that was the fact that the kitchen staff hated him.  
  
"I don't know if it makes you better but I think you're alright," Miyuki Daitokuji said. "You found the alien baby so as far as I'm concerned you're more important than a hundred Kriegers".  
  
Lawrence blushed at the compliment. "Uh, I imagine you would like to get a look at the baby," he said.  
  
"You imagine correctly, Junior Lieutenant," Dr. Daitokuji said.  
  
  
"My squad will be joining us in a bit," said Lawrence. "Sergeant Korina Winsley can help you suit up for the hike inside the ship."  
  
  
  
  
One hour later found Dr. Daitokuji and the Junior Lieutenant staring at the alien infant sleeping inside the transparent cylinder.  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji glanced at Lawrence. "You were absolutely right to stop the Corporal from attempting to open the cylinder. At this point we have no idea what she can or cannot tolerate. Maybe there would be no ill effects but we can't afford to be wrong."  
  
" She, huh?" said Sage Okowa. "What makes you think it's a girl? The Junior Lieutenant thinks it's a girl too but how can you be sure?"  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji gave the Tech Sergeant a look of incredulousness. "You can't be serious. How could you not be sure? Look at how she's dressed, pink with lots of lace."  
  
"The thing about aliens is that they're alien," the Tech Sergeant said. "Maybe pink with lots of lace is how males dress where ever they're from. The thing is right now we can't open the cylinder to find out."  
  
"You have a point, Tech Sergeant," Dr. Daitokuji said. "However, I don't think that these aliens are as alien as all that. This baby looks perfectly human to me. Something tells me we have some things in common with these aliens."  
  
"One thing we don't have in common is star ships the size of mountains," pointed out Sage Okowa. "I think you're being a bit hasty to say we have a lot in common with these people. I don't have a lot in common with the Med Tech here and we're from the same planet."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The one time Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fourth of that Name, now commonly known as the Queen Mother, was making good on her promise to her daughter. Thus it was she found herself in the garden of the person she relied on most during her reign, Gehedra Kaisysrius.  
  
Some garden, she thought as she looked around. The woman has a veritable black thumb.  
  
Indeed, the garden wasn't much to look at. Every plant that the Queen Mother could see was in the process of giving up the ghost. Instead of being bright and cheerful like the Queen Mother thought gardens should be the overall effect was quite gloomy.  
  
This isn't a garden, the Queen Mother thought. It's an abattior for flowers.  
  
"So, I see you do errands for your daughter these days, Your Majesty," a voice behind her said.  
  
The Queen Mother turned around to face the owner of that voice. Gehedra Kaisysrius stood on the stone walkway with her hands full of gardening tools.  
  
"I take it that you know why I'm here," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"Of course I know, Your Majesty," Gehedra Kaisysrius said.  
  
"Don't 'Your Majesty' me. I stepped down from the throne over thirty years ago," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"Queen Mother, then," the retired admiral said.  
  
The Queen Mother rolled her eyes and sighed. "I hate that title. Why not call me by my name?"  
  
"Zoraphila..."  
  
"Don't EVER call me that again!" the Queen Mother snapped. "That's a title not a name. I stopped being Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fourth of that Name, the day I stepped down.Use the name I was born with."  
  
"I can't, it doesn't feel right," Gehedra Kaisysrius said.  
  
"It always surprised me that you insisted on being so formal," the Queen Mother said. "Usually you're blunt to the point of being vulgar."  
  
"I still have respect for the office, whether I'm vulgar or not," Gehedra Kaisysrius said.  
  
"If you have so much respect then you'll respect my wishes," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"As you wish, ... Katarayna Xerxandress," Gehedra Kaisysrius said, giving in. Even the legendary admiral was no match for the Queen Mother. She knew from vast experience that the Queen Mother was not to be denied. During the century and a half that Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fourth of that Name, ruled the Cygnan Empire of Stars, thousands of proud and powerful galactic notables had been broken on the rock of the former Cygnan Queen's iron will.  
  
"Was that so difficult?" the Queen Mother asked.  
  
"Are you going to get around to actually asking the question or are you going waste my time with these pointless pleasantries?" Gehedra Kaisysrius grumbled.  
  
"Question?"   
  
"Don't be so damn purposely obtuse,.... Katarayna Xerxandress," the former admiral said. "You've already admitted that you're here on behalf of you're daughter."  
  
"I'm here on behalf of the Cygnan Empire," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"You're here to ask me to get your daughter's ass out of a sling," Gehedra Kaisysrius said, being as blunt as the Queen Mother remembered her to be.  
  
"That's a crude way of putting it but you're essentially correct," the Queen Mother admitted. "However, that doesn't change the fact that the Empire needs you."  
  
"Well, forget it. I'm an old woman. Too old for fighting wars."  
  
"Listen to you," the Queen Mother said, chuckling. "You make it sound as if you'll be on the front lines, fighting hand to hand with the Hegemony storm troopers."  
  
Gehedra Kaisysrius almost made a crack about Hegemony "porn snoopers" but thought better of it. Even she wouldn't make comments that vulgar to the Queen Mother, it just wasn't done.  
  
"My mind isn't what it used to be," Gehedra Kaisysrius said. "I'll probably botch it up worse than that idiot girl, Kayana Diamocles."  
  
"Please, you wouldn't fool my daughter with that rubbish, so don't insult me with it," the Queen Mother retorted.  
  
"Damn it! I'm finally enjoying my life and you want to drag me off for yet another thankless and joyless war. You know what I hate about the Fleet? Being stuck in an oversized talking tin can with thousands of desperate women who have gone too long without "shore leave" if you get my meaning."  
  
The Queen Mother got her meaning all right. "I can't believe that you're worried about such things at your age but if it's that much of a factor than arrangements can be made."  
  
Gehedra Kaisysrius had a long laugh at that. "No, that part of my life died long ago when my life-mate died. Since his death it's been a complete non-issue. Now I'm content with gardening, it's not much but it keeps me busy."  
  
"This is why you don't wish to come out of retirement? This garden?"  
  
"It might look boring but it's what I like," Gehedra Kaisysrius said defensively.  
  
The Queen Mother looked around at the sad little garden. "Don't you think that you've been murdering these innocent defenseless flowers long enough? How can you justify wasting away here when fellow Cygnans are being slaughtered?"  
  
"You have no conscience," Gehedra Kaisysrius said with some bitterness. "Nagging me back into the Fleet. You've always shamelessly used people and I see you haven't changed."  
  
"So, you're giving in?" the Queen Mother asked.  
  
"What choice do I have? You'll happily hound me into the grave if I don't give in," the legendary admiral said. "Still, I won't make any promises, if I blunder and cost us the war don't blame me, I warned you."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, Non Pariel in the Spiral Arm, ect., looked down at the kneeling Lysia Napolipolita. "Please, rise my daughter. It will be rather difficult for us to talk if you keep mumbling into the floor like that."  
  
A red faced Lieutenant Commander Napolipolita stood up. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, it's just that..."  
  
The Cygnan Queen waved her to silence. "No need to apologize, I quite understand. Your recent exploits have been brought to my attention. Furthermore, your service record is exemplary. I have need of an officer like yourself. Doubtless you have already heard of the recent developements in the Rim."  
  
"Of course, Your Majesty," Lysia Napolipolita replied.  
  
"Then you know how urgent it is that my daughter be found," the Cygnan Queen said. "Will you accept the mission to find my daughter?"  
  
"Of course! How could I refuse? I'm as loyal to the Empire as anyone in the Fleet."  
  
"Excellent. I knew you were the right choice," the Queen said.She gave Lysia Napolipolita a small silver box. "Inside are your captain's bars and the key-card containing the command codes to the Gamma Hydrae. I know you probably would have preferred a more formal ceremony for your promotion but time and secrecy are of the essence."  
  
"Gamma Hydrae?" said a stunned Lysia Napolipolita. "A capital ship, Your Majesty?"  
  
The Cygnan Queen smiled. "Congratulations, Captain Napolipolita."   
  
  
End of Part V  
  
  



	2. War and Rumours of War

War and Rumours of War Part I  
  
  
Every morning the residents of the Cygnus Grandus Penal Compound went through the same ritual. Standing in ranks and columns they were forced to watch the same spectacle morning after morning.  
  
Every morning Captain Shiea Tremaltier made her way across the prison grounds. Tall, rugged and well muscled she was an imposing figure. Which was just one of several reasons why the prisoners fought to keep straight faces as she marched across the prison yard.  
  
Captain Tremaltier didn't just march but goose-stepped across the yard. Following close behind was the prison's commanding officer, Colonel Bloodwyne (commonly referred to as "Warden Bloodless" by the prisoners).  
  
The sight of the tall imposing Captain being followed by the dry stick-like Colonel was almost too much to bear for the prisoners. It was too early in the morning to be forced to watch something that absurd.  
  
The Captain pulled up to a stop in front of the assembled prisoners, standing ramrod straight. She held up a rolled parchment and unrolled it so that she was able to read it.  
  
"Prisoner Delaina Diamocles, Front and Centah!!" the Captain said in her best Voice of Command.  
  
D sighed quietly to herself and pushed her way to the front. Being singled out for special attention was always a bad thing, usually very bad.  
  
When D made her way to the front the Captain read from the parchment. "By order of Her Imperial Majesty, Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, Non-Pareil in the Spiral Arm, Protectress of the Rim Territorries.."  
  
She is not anymore , D thought irreverantly.  
  
"Lady of Lights, etc., the prisoner Delaina Diamocles is hereby to be released from the Cygnus Grandus Penal Compound and remanded to the custody of the Cygnan Imperial Fleets. Officers from Cygnus Grandus will hand Delaina Diamocles over to the representatives from the Gamma Hydrae forthwith upon arrival of said representatives. Signed by my own hand, Zoraphila Xerxandress."  
  
Right on cue a detachment of Imperial Armored Marines from the Gamma Hydrae marched into the prison yard.  
  
Colonel Bloodwyne gave D a look that the prisoners called "The Eyeball". "I don't know why you're being released but I doubt it's for pleasant reasons," she said. "If I had to guess I would say your cousin Kayana has something to do with it. Mostly likely you and your cousin will meet a tragic end." The Colonel drew her finger across her throat and gave D an evil smile.  
  
As the Imperial Marines collected D the Colonel got in one last shot. "I'm going to enjoy seeing your head along with that of your cousin's decorating the walls when I visit the Imperial Palace. If the Empire is extemely fortunate even more of your family will be decorating the walls."  
  
  
  
  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, etc., fidgeted nervously in the den of her suite within the Imperial Palace. She had yet another harrowing confrontation ahead of her.  
  
"Too many of these confrontations," the Queen said. "I'm going to get ulcers from all this by the time I'm done. At least dealing with Lysia Napolipolita was easy enough."  
  
She looked over at bar in the corner of the den. This time she would not deny herself the drink that she wanted. The Queen needed to settle her nerves and a drink would go a long way in helping. She wasn't going to confront her mother this time so she thought she could afford it.  
  
Over at the bar she poured a small glass of something remarkably vile and downed it. "Whew! One drink of that and I think I could take on the Hegemony Galactic Fleet by myself."  
  
The door chime sounded as she put the bottle back under the bar. "Come in!" she called out.  
  
The door opened and Kayana Diamocles meekly entered the den. The Admiral looked as if she hadn't slept in days. It was also plainly evident that she had been weeping recently.  
  
"I have my resignation, it's all filled out, Your Majesty," Kayana said. She handed the Queen a sheaf of papers.  
  
Zoraphila looked the papers over and then looked up at the Admiral.  
  
"It's in triplicate, just like the paper pushers like it, Your Majesty," Kayana said, managing a weak smile.  
  
"Did I ask you to resign?" the Queen asked.  
  
"No, but I assumed...."  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress tore Kayana's resignation into small pieces. "I don't accept your resignation. You'll resign when I say you can."  
  
"But I thought...."  
  
"That's what you get for thinking," the Queen said. "The Empire isn't through with you yet. You're going to help me salvage this war."  
  
"But I've already failed you miserably, Your Majesty," Kayana Diamocles said.  
  
It would have been easier for the Queen to chew glass than say what she said next. "First of all, don't "Your Majesty" me every five seconds, it's distracting. Secondly, we both failed each other,Kayana. Our defeat in the Rim is largely your fault, I won't deny that, your plans for the campaign in the Rim were faulty. However, the blame for the loss of my daughter is all on me. I had no business going to war while heavy with child. As Mother said, you're only guilty of using devastatingly bad judgement, I, however, am guilty of the sin of hubris."  
  
"The Queen Mother said that?" the Admiral asked in near shock.  
  
"She said a lot more than that but we needn't go into all that," the Queen said. "I know it's a shock that Mother would defend you in any way at all but there you have it."  
  
"The Queen Mother always said that I was a bad influence on you," Kayana observed.  
  
"You were, still are in fact," Zoraphila said.  
  
Kayana Diamocles looked at the floor. "It seems my family is cursed.First my cousin brings shame to us with her horrid crime and now I'm responsible for the greatest defeat in Cygnan history."  
  
"You know better than that," the Queen. "D's crime in no way reflects on you or your family, it was a crime of passion and completely her responsiblity."  
  
"Crime of passion, huh?" Kayana said, genuinely grinning for the first time since the disaster in the Rim.  
  
"Now don't you start," Zoraphila said, trying to keep a straight face.  
  
D's crime was one of the worst crimes a Cygnan woman could commit. She had attempted to seduce the life-mate of another woman. A woman of high political office.A woman who was no less than the Alpha Cygnan Ambassador to the Intersteller Republic (the Cygnan Empire's closest ally among the star-faring nations). It was a crime serious enough to cause the Diamocles Family to be cast down from it place of wealth and influence. Only the support of the Cygnan Queen had saved the Diamocles' from this ignomious fate.  
  
"The family won't recover from this latest humiliation," sighed Kayana.  
  
"Maybe, maybe not," the Queen said. "You both will be given another chance to atone for your failures."  
  
"Both?" asked the Admiral. "How can that be? D is serving a life term at Cygnus Grandus."  
  
"I had a visit with a certain newly promoted starship captain," the Queen said. "It seems that she needed the skills of a certain guest of the Cygnus Grandus facility. As this captain is on a mission that's vital to the future of the Empire I couldn't in good conscience deny her request."  
  
"Who in her right mind would ask for D to be sprung from the stir?" Kayana asked.  
  
"Perhaps someone who was a close childhood friend, someone that owed her survival to D," the Queen hinted.  
  
"By the Infinite," said Kayana with wide eyes. "It's Lysia Napolipolita, isn't it?"  
  
"Captain Lysia Napolipolita," the Queen confirmed.  
  
"Oh, that has to stick in Grea Napolipolita's craw," the Admiral said, laughing. "She has such aspirations to see the Napolipolita Family replace the Diamocles' in terms of prestige and power."  
  
"That woman is completely transparent," the Queen said with scorn. "Not to mention grasping. She would happily topple the Xerxandress Dynasty if she could."  
  
"I don't understand, knowing this you still sent Lysia Napolipolita on an important mission that could positively affect the fortunes of the Napolipolitas," Kayana said.  
  
"Yes and I'll tell you why," the Queen said. "Lysia is more like her mother than the rest of the family. She is more loyal to the Empire than she is the Napolipolita Family. Her mother served the Empire with distinction and I expect that Lysia will do same. Don't worry, if Captain Napolipolita is successful I'll see to it that only she benefits and not the rest of her family."  
  
"Why are you still protecting my family after all this?" Kayana asked.  
  
"I believe in loyalty. Without the support of your family the Xerxandress' would never have ascended to the Throne after the fall of the Khartreagis Dynasty. The Diamocles Family has always been staunch supporters of the Xerxandress Dynasty. Loyalty must flow both ways, it's time for my family to repay some of the debts we owe your family."  
  
"So, given the chance to ask anything of you Lysia Napolipolita asks for the freedom of a childhood friend," the Admiral observed. "Surely that is loyalty. D is lucky to have such a friend."   
  
"A true and loyal friend is not to be scorned," the Cygnan Queen said. "Sometimes I forget that and for that I apologize."  
  
"You have nothing to apologize for," Kayana said. "It was I who failed you ."  
  
"Be that as it may I humiliated you in front of the entire command crew on the bridge of the Beta Aurora , I let my anger get the best of me but that isn't good excuse. You should have been reprimanded for your failure but not like that."  
  
"About not accepting my resignation, after the fiasco in the Rim I certainly can't command the Imperial Fleets," Kayana said.  
  
"You won't be," the Queen said. "There is someone else who will be commanding the Fleets during the war with the Hegemony. I have another task for you. A very important task."  
  
"Who is going to command the Imperial Fleets?" asked the Admiral.  
  
"Gehedra Kaisysrius," answered Zoraphila Xerxandress.  
  
"The Old Battleaxe, er, I mean Admiral Kaisysrius is coming out of retirement?" said a stunned Kayana Diamocles. "How did you manage that?"  
  
"Mother had a talk with her," the Cygnan Queen told her. "She resisted at first but Mother got her to see the light."  
  
Kayana grinned at the thought of the Queen Mother relentlessly badgering Gehedra Kaisysrius back into service. "So what is it that you want me to do?"  
  
"You're going to take command of our auxilary fleet," the Queen told her.  
  
"Auxilary fleet? What auxilary fleet?"  
  
"The one you and I are about to create," the Queen said. "We'll discuss it later when the full Imperial Command gathers to plan our stratagies for the war."  
  
"Thank you for giving me the chance to redeem myself, I know I don't deserve it," the Admiral said.  
  
"We all need a chance for redemption and we are all equally deserving," the Queen replied.  
  
"Even my cousin deserves a chance to atone for her "crime of passion" ?" Kayana asked.  
  
"Yes, even her," the Queen answered. She noticed that the Admiral was smirking. "All right,enough of that now."  
  
"I'm sorry, it's just the idea of D trying to seduce a man," Kayana said, fighting to keep a straight face and losing.  
  
"I said that was enough!" the Queen said, trying not to laugh herself.  
  
Both women spent several moments battling their perverse senses of humor. Then they made the mistake of making eye contact and lost it.  
  
"The idea of D trying to sweet talk a man is too much," Zoraphila gasped, wiping her eyes.  
  
"Has anyone told you how handsome you are?" Kayana said in a passable imitation of D's deep gravelly voice.  
  
"Stop it! Stop it!"  
  
"Oh my, you are manly," Kayana said, most definately not stopping.   
  
"Have you no shame?" the Cygnan Queen asked. "What D did was a serious crime. It isn't something we should be making light of." That statement was belied by the fact that the Queen was still snickering.  
  
"Somebody should have told her that one can't seduce a man by force," the Admiral said. "Anyways, I don't know that it was bad as all that. After all, D wasn't very successful in her attempt."   
  
Instead of being seduced the Ambassador's life-mate had been terrified of D. As a seductress D made a great bull in the china shop.  
  
The Queen thought a change of subject was in order."I'm glad we had this talk.I was afraid to face you again after all those horrible things I said to you."  
  
" You were afraid to face me ?" asked Kayana.  
  
"I felt horrible after what I said on the Beta Aurora. How do you face your closest friend after saying those terrible things?"  
  
"It's already been forgiven," the Admiral said. "I know you didn't mean those things. I was worried that you wouldn't be able to forgive me."  
  
"You know I have," the Queen told her friend. "We're going to sound quite depressing if we keep this up. Maybe we should talk about something more upbeat, like how we're going give the Hegemony what it so richly deserves."  
  
  
  
  
Later the Queen would ponder the conversation with her childhood friend. While it was true that Queen Zoraphila Xerxandress was protecting the Diamocles Family, it was only true to a certain extent. The Diamocles line was a rare one. One that was blessed (or cursed, depending point of view) by one thing. A high rate of males born into the Family. While the average ratio throughout the Empire was less than one male to every twenty Cygnans born the ratio in the Diamocles Family was between one in four to one in five. As long as the Diamocles Family kept it up it's future was secure. Even being cast down from power wouldn't effect the family long term. The family was an unofficial Imperial treasure and as such would keep popping up no matter what happened.  
  
Moronic twits , the Queen thought about those who would destroy the Diamocles' and families like them. If they are destroyed the Empire will be destroyed with them .  
  
It was simple, the species couldn't survive without the male gender. As much as males were second class citizens in the Empire they were still neccessary.  
  
The problem is that there are too many who cannot be bothered with that simple logic , the Queen thought. As Mother would say, the Empire must be protected from itself even more than from outside enemies.  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida was playing solitaire on his computer in his room when the phone rang.  
  
He picked the phone up and spoke into it. "Lawrence Yashida here."  
  
"You're a hard person to get ahold these days," his father said.  
  
"I've been busy lately, Dad," Lawrence said.  
  
"Too busy to talk to your own parents even?" the elder Yashida asked.  
  
Lawrence sighed. "I'm sorry, I should have called but my schedule hasn't had any free time in it."  
  
"What has you so busy that you can't even give your parents a phone call?"  
  
"Dad, I'd love to tell you about it but it's classified information right now," Lawrence said.  
  
"Classified information? Everybody on the planet knows the E.D.F. is investigating a huge alien spaceship that wiped out Graviton City," Lawrence's father pointed out. "I hope you don't think you're keeping that a secret."  
  
"Dad, I'm not at liberty to discuss it," Lawrence said.  
  
"The E.D.F. found something important on the ship," the elder Yashida guessed.  
  
"Dad, I can't talk about it!"  
  
"Aliens! The E.D.F. found aliens on the ship didn't it?" Lawrence's father asked.  
  
Lawrence groaned. Trust Dad to think of a hare brained idea and be absolutely right about it. "Dad, can we talk about something else?"  
  
"Of course we can," his father said. "How about we talk about when you're coming to visit your mother and I?"  
  
"Dad, I'd love to but I can't get away right now," Lawrence said.  
  
"Right, right, discovering space aliens must keep you pretty busy," the elder Yashida said.  
  
"Dad!"  
  
"If it's not that then what is it?" Lawrence's father asked.  
  
At that moment someone knocked on his door.   
  
"C'mon in," Lawrence called out.  
  
To Lawrence's surprise Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji stepped through the door. He put his hand over the phone and whispered, "It's my dad."  
  
"Are you going to tell me why you can't come to see us or not?" Lawrence's father demanded.  
  
"I had a run in with General Krieger's nephew and the General took it rather badly," Lawrence said. "As a result I won't be getting passes to go off base any time soon."  
  
"Seems to me that a certain someone warned you about going into the E.D.F.," Lawrence's father said. "I told you it was a bad career choice. It's not to late to leave. Plenty of good jobs at my company."  
  
"Dad, I'm not quitting the E.D.F. just so I can work at your company."  
  
"You shouldn't be so quick to make a decision." Lawrence's father said. You'd make a lot more money where I work, a lot more."  
  
"Dad, I'm not quitting the E.D.F.!" Lawrence said loudly.  
  
"Plus there are some very attractive girls there," the elder Yashida said, ignoring Lawrence's protests. "They all make good money and have good careers."  
  
"Dad, I don't care, I'm not leaving the E.D.F.," Lawrence answered.  
  
"You need to get married son," Lawrence's father told him. "Your mother and I need grandchildren."  
  
"Dad! We are not going to have this conversation! I have to get off the phone, my boss is here."  
  
"Okay son, we'll talk about this later. Just remember, your mother and I love you," Lawrence's father said.  
  
"Yeah, I love you both too. Bye now," Lawrence said before he hung up the phone.  
  
"Parents, huh," Miyuki Daitokuji observed.  
  
Lawrence rolled his eyes. "Mine are the worst. I love 'em but they're the worst."  
  
Miyuki looked around the Junior Lieutenant's cramped room. "Nice place you have here."  
  
"Welcome to the spacious and luxerious junior officer's quarters," Lawrence said, grinning.  
  
"Did I hear you correctly when you said Krieger took away your leave privilages?" Dr. Daitokuji asked.  
  
"Yeah, it sucks. I was planning on visiting my folks and looking up some friends from high school but now I'm stuck here without leave for the foreseeable future," Lawrence answered.  
  
"You can't go see your family because of all this?" Miyuki said, starting to get outraged. "That's horrible. I think someone needs to tell that Krieger where the bear craps in buckwheat."  
  
"If you figure who is that someone is let me know," Lawrence said.  
  
"Maybe that someone is going to be me," Miyuki said.  
  
"You!?" Lawrence said, staring at her.  
  
"Sure, why not? What's Krieger going to do? Take my birthday away?"  
  
"Look, I appreciate the thought but maybe you'd better not," Lawrence said.  
  
"Well, I'm going to. Since I've been here you're one of the few men that I've met with any brains. You found the alien baby and probably saved her life once already. What's Krieger done besides let his ass grow roots in that big leather chair of his? He should thank his lucky stars that you're in the E.D.F. What if you hadn't been around to stop his moronic nephew and that little girl had died?"  
  
"What if indeed?" Lawrence said.  
  
"I'll tell you what would have happened," Dr. Daitokuji said. "I would have cut both of their guts out with a dull rusty knife."   
  
"Such anger," Lawrence said grinning. (The mental image of the good doctor opening up the Old Man and his nephew with a dull knife was a cheerful one to the Junior Lieutenant) "Changing the subject, I assume the reason why you came here in the first place has nothing to do with my troubles with the General."  
  
"Yes, tomorrow we are going to start running some tests on the cylinder and if everything goes well maybe the kid as well," Dr. Daitokuji said. "I'd like you to be down there when we start."  
  
"I'd love to be there but unfortunately I'm gonna be busy ladling out slop at mealtimes in between shifts of scrubbing toilets with toothbrushes."  
  
"We'll see about that," Miyuki Daitokuji said. "By the time I'm done with him Krieger will begging for a chance to give you a big fat promotion."  
  
Lawrence just goggled at her for a moment. "WHAT are you smoking? I wanna know if it's prescription or not because if it is I'm gonna tell my doctor I want some. There is no way the General is just gonna roll over for you."  
  
"You might be a smart man Lawrence but you still have a few things to learn about life," Miyuki said. "Krieger might run the E.D.F. like it's his own private sandbox but the truth of the matter is that he has people he must answer to as well."  
  
"Like who?"  
  
"Let me put it this way, General Krieger can be replaced by any horse's ass. However, alien babies are irreplaceable," Miyuki Daitokuji observed. "If something should happen to her Krieger's head will be the first to roll. I'll see to that."  
  
"You'll see to it huh," Lawrence said.  
  
"I have connections," Dr. Daitokuji said. "You're not going to waste any more of your time in mess hall or scrubbing toilets. I'll also make sure you get your leave that you're supposed to get."  
  
"How do you think you're gonna do that?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"Like I said, I have connections," Miyuki said giving him a wink. "Well, I have things that need to be done. I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
After she left Lawrence thought about what she had said. He had a hard time picturing her giving the General an ass chewing.  
  
She is a lot braver than I am if she is willing to stand up to the General, he thought. Just my luck, I find the perfect woman and she is already married.  
  
  
End of Part I  
  
War and Rumours of War Part II  
  
  
The combat missions shuttle settled down on the deck of the Gamma Hydrae's shuttle bay. The hatch opened and a detachment of Imperial Marines escorted D out of the shuttle.  
  
Waiting for the large woman was a tall slender figure with green hair and wearing an officer's uniform and a long black cape.  
  
As D climbed out of the shuttle her eyes widened with surprise as she saw the caped figure. A huge grin plastered itself on her face and she ran towards the figure with her arms outstretched.  
  
"I can't believe it! It's so good to see you, Lieut..." D saw the captain's bars on the collar. "Er, that is CAPTAIN Napolipolita!"  
  
"I'm happy to see you too..hhhmmfffff..." Captain Napolipolita found herself speaking into D's chest as D swept her into a bone crushing hug.  
  
When D finally let go Napolipolita spent several moments checking for broken ribs. "Damn! You're even stronger than I remembered. By the stars! What have you been eating ?!"  
  
"I've been working out a lot," D told her. "There's lots of free time at Cygnus Grandus and not much to do with it."  
  
"I guess," Lysia Napolipolita said. "You were impressively strong before, now you're a monster. Remind me never to get on your bad side."  
  
"You could never be on my bad side, Captain," D said. "I owe my freedom to you."  
  
"You might be less pleased when you learn why you're here," the Captain said.  
  
"I doubt it but I'll bite. Why am I here?"  
  
"You're going to help me search for the Queen's infant daughter," the Captain answered. "She was aboard the Epsilon Irindi. It was lost somewhere in the Rim."  
  
"How hard can that be?" D asked.  
  
"I don't think you fully appreciate the task before us," Captain Napolipolita said. "We have to search a volume of space that has a diameter greater than a hundred lightyears."  
  
D's eyes bulged with shock. "Gaaahhh.."  
  
"My sentiments exactly," said the Captain, grimacing. "Even better, we only have the resources of the Gamma Hydrae to do it with."  
  
"That's completely insane!" D said. "We could be old women by the time we find the Princess."  
  
"Still happy that I got you out of Cygnus Grandus?" Lysia Napolipolita asked.  
  
"Absolutely!" D said. "It's still better than life in prison. Besides you're my only friend, I'd happily spend the rest of my life wandering the cold wilderness of space if it's in your company."  
  
"That sentimentality of yours has already landed you in more trouble than it's worth," the Captain said. She still has a heart as big as the rest of her, for which I am eternally grateful.  
  
D smiled at the Captain. "I have faith in you, Captain. So, despite the odds I have a good feeling about this. I just know we're going to find the Princess."  
  
"Oh, you do, do you?" Captain Napolipolita said, raising an elegant eyebrow. "Just how do you know this?"  
  
"I call it women's intuition," D told her.  
  
"Women's intuition? Was it women's intuition that told you to attempt to bed the Ambassador's life-mate?"  
  
"That was a low blow," said D, looking hurt. "He was the one who initiated the whole thing, not me. Nobody would believe me though."  
  
"I believe you," the Captain said. "In fact, I know it's true."  
  
"I don't understand why he would lead me on if he didn't mean it," D said.  
  
Captain Napolipolita looked at D, amazement written all over her face. "D, surely you don't think it was his idea? He's a man which means he would do nothing on his own initiative. The Ambassador put him up to it."  
  
"That's crazy," D said. "Why would she do that?"  
  
"What is your last name?" the Captain asked.  
  
"Diamocles, of course."  
  
"That is reason enough," Captain Napolipolita said.  
  
"I don't understand," D said.  
  
"What? Do I have to spell it out for you, D? There are certain people who would love to embarrass and discredit the Diamocles Family. You went a long way in helping them accomplish that. You and your cousin both."  
  
"I never even thought of that," D said. "They're in trouble and it's all my fault."  
  
"Actually, the trouble they're in has more to do with your cousin Kayana than you," the Captain told her. "Anyways, they'll be fine. Lucky for your family the Xerxandress' are big believers in loyalty unlike a lot people I could mention."  
  
"This is all so terrible," D said.  
  
"Yes, it is," Lysia Napolipolita agreed. "I'm beginning to think that a long search for a lost princess isn't such a bad thing. Right now the politics in the Empire stinks and I for one will be glad to get away from it."  
  
  
  
General Krieger unhappily eyed the woman in front of his desk. "Look, Miss Daitokuji.."  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji put her hands on the General's desk and leaned over it to get right in the General's face. "First off, I'm married and secondly you are to address me as Doctor," Miyuki said in a growl. "If you ever show such disrespect to me again I'll have my husband come and cut off those shriveled things of yours that pass for balls amongst E.D.F. generals. Or if he's busy I'll just do it myself. Do I make myself clear?"  
  
The General stood up, trying loom over Dr. Daitokuji with his six foot, one inch height. "Look here, you can't say that to.."  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji wasn't easily intimidated. "Oh shut up!" she snapped, her voice dripping with contempt. "Ever since I got here you've been a pain in my backside. That might work with your officers but it won't work with me."  
  
The General had a hard time believing this was actually happening. Only a half hour ago he had thought of Miyuki Daitokuji as a demure and diminutive Japanese woman. Now he just wished that she would go away.  
  
"I wish I could help you , Dr. Daitokuji, but my decision is final," he told her.  
  
"That's what you think. If you send that worthless nephew of yours to help me one more time I'm going to arrange a tragic accident for him."  
  
"I think you're being irrational," General Krieger said. "It's obvious that you have a thing for Yashida.."  
  
"You're walking on mighty thin ice General," Miyuki said. "I happen to know some of the E.D.F. directors and I'm certain that they would dissapprove of the way you've talked to me."  
  
Krieger's only response was to sneer. "Directors! Talk about having no balls."  
  
"I was afraid you'd be difficult," Miyuki said. "That's why I did a little research on you before I came here. You have a wide spread reputation as an assmuncher." She gave the General a smile. " So I came prepared."  
  
"Prepared for what?" the General asked.  
  
"Do you have a pen?" Dr. Daitokuji asked. "I think your office is bugged."  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji spent several minutes writing on a piece of paper and then handed it to Krieger.  
  
"It wouldn't do for any eavesdroppers to find that out, huh?" she said.  
  
Krieger read the piece of paper and then just stared at her for a moment. "How did you find this out?"  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji just smiled and said," My husband tells me that knowledge is power and by that he means blackmail. I've learned a lot from Hikaru and most of it isn't nice.Now I don't want to you to forget, Yashida has a week leave coming up."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida found himself again in front of the cylinder that contained the alien child. Dr. Daitokuji was as good as her word and had managed to see to it that he no longer had k.p. or any other menial labor punishment.  
  
I would give my right leg to have heard what was said between her and the Old Man, Lawrence thought. He had already asked her what was said but Miyuki Daitokuji had waved it off, saying that she and the General had a "pleasant chat". Not surprisingly Lawrence was quite skeptical of that claim.  
  
"We're practically handed an alien child and the first thing we have to do is drill holes in her life support," Dr. Daitokuji muttered, standing next to Lawrence.  
  
"Why not use an optical laser spectrometer?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"It's not as accurate as an instrument package inserted right into the cylinder for one thing," Miyuki Daitokuji said. "For another, all it can do is measure air content. It can't tell us anything about the baby itself."  
  
"Air content might be enough," Lawrence said. "If we find the cylinder is full of poisonous gases or that there is no oxygen in there then that would pretty much tell us that we can't open the cylinder. It might not give you all the information you want but it does have the advantage of not compromising the the kid's life support."  
  
"Oh, she is absolutely an oxygen breather," Miyuki said. "The crew left plenty of blood and tissue for us to test. Without a doubt they're oxygen breathers."  
  
"See the things one doesn't find out about when one is busy scrubbing urine stains out of toilets with a toothbrush?" Lawrence asked. "There are a million other factors that could prove fatal for her. I hate to be the voice of doom but her death might be inevitable. The life support system can't sustain her forever."  
  
"I don't care what it takes, that child is going to survive," Dr. Daitokuji said. "She is depending on us for survival and I will not fail her. I mean just look at her, don't you think she's the cutest little thing?"  
  
Lawrence didn't see it. As far as he was concerned all babies looked exactly the same, smelled exactly the same, screamed exactly the same, filled their diapers in exactly the same manner and puked all over one's good shirts in exactly the same way. He had privately made a vow several years before to never (and he meant NEVER) have kids. It was a vow he had never discussed with his parents for the obvious reasons.  
  
Of course, Dr. Daitokuji couldn't be expected to feel the same way. After all she was an expectant mother. Besides which females weren't even close to being logical when came to babies. What a man (like Lawrence) saw as a screaming bundle of poopy diapers a woman (like the good Doctor) saw as bundle of cuteness and joy.  
  
Just wait until it wakes her up in the middle of night, Lawrence thought smugly. Betcha she will not think it so cute then.  
  
"One of the things we should be worrying about is her food," the Junior Lieutenant said. "Whatever the life support is feeding her it has to have a limited supply."  
  
"I'm not so sure," Miyuki Daitokuji said. "She hasn't been awake at all since I arrived here that I'm aware of. I think it's possible that she is in some kind of stasis field."  
  
"All this damn alien tech is getting to be a headache," Lawrence grumbled.  
  
"My husband doesn't think so," Dr. Daitokuji commented. "He's eager to get his hands on all the tech on this ship."  
  
"Right, he's an industrialist," Lawrence said. Swell guy, six million people are dead because of this thing but at least he can make a profit.  
  
"Well, why don't we start off with the optical laser spectrometer like you suggested and go from there," Miyuki said. "It shouldn't take too long and like you say it won't compromise the life support."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Cygnan naval corvette, Space Princess, (A gift to the current Queen from her mother on the Queen's thirtieth birthday. It took ten years before she realized that the corvette's name was actually intended as an insult.) glided between the hulks of once proud vessels of the Imperial Fleets that were now decommissioned.  
  
In the cockpit of the Space Princess sat Queen Zoraphila Xerxandress and Admiral Kayana Diamocles.  
  
"This is going to be the Auxiliary Fleet!? Kayana Diamocles asked the Cygnan Queen, not quite able to believe what she was seeing.  
  
"Ingenius, right?" the Queen said, turning to her friend.  
  
"Ingenius. Is that another word for insane? Kayana asked. "If it is, then yes, it's ingenius."  
  
"I, for one, do think that it is a genius idea," Admiral Gehedra Kaisysrius called out from the cabin.  
  
"I knew you were going senile, Gehedra," the Queen Mother said, back in the cabin with the Admiral. "For once I agree with Kayana, it's a damn fool stunt that my daughter is proposing."  
  
"HUH!" Gehedra Kaisysrius grunted. "I forget, which one of us has over a hundred naval victories to our credit?"  
  
"It's easy to win when your enemies are incompetent old poops," the Queen Mother said, sneering. "Speaking of old poops.." She gave Gehedra Kaisysrius a pointed look.  
  
"I can go back to killing flowers anytime you'd like, besides you're no spring chicken yourself," Admiral Kaisysrius said sweetly.  
  
"There are mountain ranges younger than you," the Queen Mother retorted.  
  
Still bickering Admiral Kaisysrius and the Queen Mother crowded into the cockpit.  
  
"What's wrong with you two?!" the Cygnan Queen said. "There's barely enough room for two people up here, never mind all four of us."  
  
"I don't see why you should be piloting," the Queen Mother complained.  
  
"BECAUSE IT'S MY SHIP!!!" Zoraphila Xerxandress shouted.  
  
"You don't have to so snippy about it," the Queen Mother grumbled as she and Gehedra retreated back into the cabin  
  
"So what exactly is this genius plan of yours anyway?" Kayana asked.  
  
"It's simple," the Queen said "We are going take these decommissioned ships and refurbish them. With me so far?"  
  
Kayana Diamocles nodded.  
  
"Then we are going to form an Imperial Fleet with them."  
  
"See, that's the part I have a problem with," Kayana said. "These ships have been decommissioned for a reason. They wouldn't last ten minutes in a battle."  
  
"They won't be in any battles," the Queen said.  
  
"Then why go through all the trouble?" Admiral Diamocles asked.  
  
"You really must learn to be a bit more devious, Kayana," the Queen said. "It's only for show, a decoy fleet."  
  
"Decoy fleet?"  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress sighed. "I want the Hegemony to think that the Cygnan Imperial Fleets are in one place while in actuality the Fleets are somewhere else."  
  
A lightbulb lit up in Kayana's head. "You want me to lead the Hegemony Galactic Fleet on a wild goose chase."  
  
"You're catching on," the Queen said. "We need to have these ships ready as soon as possible."  
  
"I thought you were going to wait for the full Imperial Command before bringing all this up," Admiral Diamocles said.  
  
"I want as few people as possible to know what I'm planning so right now that's just us and the two crones in the cabin," the Cygnan Queen said.   
  
"Hey, we heard that!" yelled an offended Queen Mother.  
  
"Take over," the Queen told Kayana. She slid out of the pilot's chair and into the cabin to confront her mother.  
  
The Queen Mother watched her daughter enter the cabin. "How very good of you to come back and visit us peasants."  
  
The Queen put her hands on her hips and stared at the Queen Mother. "Mother, I know why Admiral Kaisysrius is here but why are you tagging along?"  
  
The Queen Mother smiled. "Why didn't you hear? I'm going to be Admiral Kaisysrius' adjutant."  
  
Gehedra Kaisysrius jumped up like she had been stuck with a sharp needle in the buttocks. "WHAT!!?? THERE'S NO WAY YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY ADJUTANT!! I would rather parachute into the photosphere of a star!"   
  
"Mother! Retired Queens don't become admiral's subordinate officers."  
  
"Oh go soak your head," the Queen Mother said. "Up until recently pregnant Queens didn't go into battle waving swords around. Just goes to show how the universe is changing. Besides, someone has to make sure that you people don't fall flat on your faces." She turned to Gehedra Kaisysrius. "As for you, I had to put up with your nonsense for over a century so I'll thank you to mind your manners. Besides I know you better than anyone still living. You'll just end up shooting the adjutant that the Imperial Fleets assigns to you."  
  
The interior of the Space Princess echoed with shouting for the next hour. The result was a foregone conclusion. The Queen Mother could out stubborn any living creature in the galaxy. Her daughter and the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleets weren't even a challenge.   
  
  
End of Part II  
  
  
War and Rumours of War Part III  
  
  
Omega General Eleina Xerxandress sighed as her shuttle decended towards the Palace shuttle pad. She hadn't enjoyed these family get togethers in years. She enjoyed spending time with her sisters and always looked forward to those occasions when her father did the cooking. What she didn't like was being around her mother. The General's mother irritated her like no one else could. Unfortunately for the General her mother happened to be the ruling monarch of the Empire so she had to grin and bear it.  
  
Eleina Xerxandress was the most celebrated warrior of her generation. By the time she had reached the age of twenty five she was already so deadly that she had earned the coveted "Omega" title and given the legendary sword Bloodthorn . She had naturally gravitated toward the Berserkers (for which the Imperial Marines brass had heaved a huge collective sigh of relief, now they wouldn't have to deal with her). Given her royal status, deadliness with just about any weapon you could think of and willingness to fight to the death over any insult there was only one thing the Imperial Command could do with her. Make her a General and put her in command of her own Berserker cadre aboard the Alpha Boadicea.  
  
Not that she did a whole lot of actual commanding. Eleina Xerxandress quite literally led her cadre, she was always at the forefront of any conflict (she quite enjoyed being on ship boarding parties). As the Queen Mother had once observed, Eleina was the general of a one woman army.  
  
As the shuttle touched down the Omega General levered herself out of her seat and made her way out of the the shuttle's hatch. Out on the shuttle pad her curly blonde hair whipped around in the chilly wind.  
  
Winter is coming a bit early this year, Eleina thought as she looked up at the overcast sky.  
  
Once inside the Royal Suites of the Imperial Palace Eleina was mobbed by a pair of fourteen year olds. Sayrie and Raysha Xerxandress were twins and played the cuteness factor to the hilt. They were small with the Xerxandress signature curly blonde hair and big green eyes. Like every young Xerxandress princess that ever lived (except Eleina) they were good natured air heads and darlings of the Empire.   
  
"Eleina, we went shopping today!" they both screamed in unison. "We went with Daddy and we bought stuff so we can go skiing !!"  
  
Skiing huh ?, Eleina thought. That will last right up until one them breaks her leg .  
  
Last year at about this time they had gone out shopping and bought stuff so that they could go ice fishing . They couldn't wait to go out and start ice fishing (after being convinced by their father of how fun it would be). After having to wait for the lake to freeze over they were out on the ice as soon as it was judged thick enough to be safe. However,after ten minutes out in the cold watching their father chopping a hole in the ice they were already tired of ice fishing (and their father had a peaceful day by himself out on the ice which was what he wanted in the first place). Everything they had bought to go ice fishing with went into a closet and never came out again.  
  
The twins followed Eleina as she headed towards her rooms. As she walked down the hallway she was inundated with questions from them.  
  
"How long will you be staying?" Sayrie asked.  
  
"Will you go skiing with us?" Raysha wanted to know.  
  
"Are you going to fight with Mother? they both asked.  
  
While the twins very much loved thier mother it couldn't compete with the hero-worship that they gave Eleina. In the bedroom they shared was a giant poster of Eleina in Imperial Marines armor (a recruiting poster made before Eleina transferred to the Berserkers). While they didn't enjoy the constant sniping between their older sister and their mother they secretly cheered on Eleina. After all, Eleina was always right. As they saw it she could say or do no wrong.  
  
The Omega General looked at her image in one of the many huge and elaborate mirrors found in the Royal Suites (vanity, thy name is woman). She was typical of the Xerxandress line in that she had the curly blonde hair and the green eyes. However, the similarities ended there. She was taller than the rest of her family. The Xerxandress women weren't short (once their bodies were done growing) but Eleina towered over them at six feet and three inches. She was also much more muscular than the typical Xerxandress. Even though she had the same slender frame (for six foot three inches) that the women of her family had, years of wearing Berserker combat armor had packed muscles on that slender frame. While she would never be anywhere near as muscular as D she was still a formidible figure and much more deadly to boot. She had indeed been born for war.  
  
In her rooms she shed her cloak and leaned Bloodthorn up against a wall. The twins looked at the sheathed sword with wide eyes.  
  
Every time Eleina came back home the twins always asked the same question. "Can we look at your sword?"  
  
Eleina always gave the same answer. "You're too young to worry about such things." She knew that her mother would never forgive her if the twins decided that they wanted to become soldiers because of her influence. There was already enough anger between them, no need to throw more fuel on the fire. Besides she didn't want the twins to become soldiers either. Eleina Xerxandress was the only soldier the family needed.  
  
After shooing the twins out of her room she undressed and examined herself, a ritual that she performed periodically. Her body bore the scars of many battles. She could have had them surgically removed but had elected to keep them (any scars on her face were repaired though, she at least had that much vanity).  
  
Scars on my body to match the ones in my soul.  
  
  
  
Dinner that was both wonderful and awful at the same time. The food was wonderful but the conversation was perfunctory and uncomfortable. Until the screaming began.  
  
As usual the Queen's life-mate lived up to his reputation of culinary excellence. Before being taken as a life-mate by the Queen, Viktor Xerxandress had been employed in the Forestry Service (about the most hazardous employment males were allowed in the Empire and it wasn't very hazardous at that). During his time in the Forestry Service he had learned to live off the land and to cook for himself. Viktor still enjoyed using these skills and often did so for the benefit of his family.  
  
While his meals were never as elaborate as what the Palace's kitchens could come up with his family always preferred his cooking.   
  
Seeing her father busy in the kitchen brought back memories of the best part of her childhood, the time spent with her father. As with any household with a male in it Viktor did the lion's share of domestic duties. Despite the fact that he could have left all of the menial unpleasantries to the household staff Viktor had insisted on taking care of his daughters himself. He had been the one to change messy diapers. He was the one to get up in the middle of the night when one of the girls woke from a nightmare crying. It was he who picked them up and got them back on their feet after the countless minor accidents that children are prone to.  
  
  
  
Eleina's table habits had long been the despair of her mother and the time spent in the Berserker Corps had done nothing to improve them. Reaching across the table she ripped a leg off of a game hen and stuffed it into her mouth. Even as she was still chewing she downed a large mug of what was the closest thing to beer to be found on Alpha Cygni. After a moment she issued a tremendous belch.  
  
"Eleina Xerxandress!" Zoraphila Xerxandress snapped. "That might pass for proper table manners among the Berserkers but here we like to at least pretend we are civilized!"  
  
Eleina smirked at her mother. "You mean like the same way you like to pretend that you give a damn about anybody but yourself?"  
  
The Queen did a quick burn and promptly exploded. "WHILE YOU"RE IN MY HOUSE YOU"LL SHOW SOME RESPECT!!!"  
  
"Your house? It's always about what's yours and what you want. Isn't it?"  
  
"I'm sick of your insolence," Eleina's mother said. "I'm still your mother and your Queen and you still owe me respect."  
  
"You mean the same way you respect Grandmother?" asked Eleina.  
  
"I think it's time you started your own household," the Queen said. "Then perhaps you'll learn the value of respect."  
  
"My own household?" said Eleina.  
  
"Yes, I think it's past time that you took a life-mate," Zoraphila Xerxandress said.  
  
The Omega General rolled her eyes, this was a very old and very sore topic between the two of them. "I would rather do an unsuited space walk."  
  
"I see. It's always about what you want as well," the Queen pointed out.  
  
"It's my life!" Eleina snapped.  
  
"There are some things that are more important than your desires," the Queen told her daughter. "I'm sorry if you don't wish to take a life-mate but the Xerxandress Family needs more daughters. The Empire needs more daughters and if you happen to produce a son, well, that's just icing on the cake."  
  
"I can have children without taking a life-mate, most Cygnans do," Eleina observed. She was tempted to point out that the family already another daughter until she had been lost out in the Rim. However, Eleina thought that too much of a low blow, besides it would also hurt her father and she would never intentionally do that.  
  
"Yes, but..."  
  
"This has nothing to do with being for the good of the Empire," Eleina said, cutting her mother off. "It's about seeing to it that I'm mated in a way that's most advantageous to you."  
  
"I can order you to take a life-mate you know," the Queen said.  
  
"Only if you wish to needlessly cause the death of a Cygnan male," the Omega General retorted.  
  
"Why are you so dead set against taking a life-mate?"   
  
"I wouldn't even know how to begin to explain it," Eleina said.  
  
Suddenly the Queen's eyes bulged as she a had a sudden thought. "You're not..., well that is to say.., ahem..., I mean...you don't.."  
  
"Spit it out already," Eleina said, annoyed.  
  
The Queen continued to hem and haw.  
  
The Omega General realized what her mother was trying to say but was unable to articulate. "I cannot believe you would even think that!" she said, giving her mother a look of contempt. "What a low and perverse mind you have."  
  
"Be that as it may, you still haven't told me why you refuse a life-mate," the Queen said.  
  
Eleina stood up. "Thank you for another wonderful meal, Father. You still haven't lost your touch." She left without saying another word.  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress pushed herself away from the table and stood up as well. "Yes, Viktor, it was a lovely dinner."  
  
Viktor Xerxandress watched his life-mate leave. He looked at the remains of dinner still on the table and sighed. "Next time we have a family get together remind me to leave CygniCity for the week."  
  
"Do you want us to help clean up, Father?" Sayrie asked.  
  
"Don't be silly," Viktor told his daughter. "It's a man's job."  
  
  
  
Later that night as Eleina lay in her bed staring at the ceiling a knock sounded at her door.  
  
"If that's you Mother, you can go to...well you know where you can go," she called out.  
  
"It's me," the voice of her father said through the door. "May I come in?"  
  
Eleina walked to the door and yanked it open.  
  
"Thank you," Viktor said after he walked into the room. "Exciting evening so far, isn't it?"  
  
"Every time I'm here Mother is jumping down my throat just as soon as I get here," Eleina complained. "I just wish she would give me break."  
  
"I imagine your mother feels the same way about you," her father said.  
  
"She won't have worry about me anymore then," Eleina said. "I won't be coming back here again after I leave."  
  
"I see," said Viktor. "Your sisters will be heartbroken but I guess as long as you're happy that's all that matters."  
  
"Don't you start on me too," Eleina growled.  
  
"Can I ask just one question?" asked her father.  
  
"Okay, but only one," Eleina said, grinning at him.  
  
"Why don't you wish to have a life-mate?"  
  
"Not you too! Why can't you all just leave me alone about that?"  
  
"Right now you are the Crown Princess," Viktor said. "If you take the Throne it's important that you produce an heir to the Throne."  
  
"Me take the Throne?" Eleina said, laughing at the idea. "That's not very likely and I don't want it anyway. Let one of the twins have it."  
  
"Sometimes I think everything you do is for the sole purpose of irritating your mother," her father said.  
  
"You think that? Has it ever occured to you that Mother goes out of her way to irritate me?" asked Eleina.  
  
"You make it difficult for her not to react to you in that fashion," Viktor said. "She has an Empire to rule, a war to fight and recent developements have put a huge strain on her. You should try to be just little more understanding."  
  
"If I tried to be understanding she would take that as surrender on my part and walk all over me," Eleina said. "You want to know why I refuse to take a life-mate? It's because Cygnan males are weak. They're nothing more than appendages of the women they happen to be mated to. To survive I have to be strong. Why would I bring that kind of weakness into my life?"  
  
"I see," her father said.  
  
"I didn't mean you, Father. You're one of the few men I know of with any backbone whatsoever."  
  
"Thank you for the compliment, I think," Viktor said. "I didn't take offense anyway, Eleina. There is more to life than just being weak or strong. You need to look beyond all that. What you need is something that you have very little of in your life. Love."  
  
Eleina just snorted. What I need is to be able to sheathe Bloodthorn in the guts of Hegemony storm troopers. Not much love in that.   
  
"I can see you don't believe me," Viktor observed. "I hope someday that you have an opportunity to learn what love really is. I never told you this but as a boy I was a rebellious child. Mother didn't know what to do with me. When I was of age she pulled some strings to get me into the Forestry Service which turned out to be wonderful for me. I was one of the few males in the Empire with any degree of freedom. When you're deep in the woods there's few people around to see if you're being properly subservient or not. It was there that I met your mother. For her birthday she decided to go on a wilderness trek with some of her friends and that's how I met her. I was the one who had to make sure they didn't get lost, eat any poisonous plants,fall off of cliffs,get attacked by dangerous animals or any number of other things that could have happened."  
  
"Don't tell me it was love at first sight."  
  
"No, it wasn't," Viktor told his oldest daughter. "After your mother went home I had completely fogotten about her so it was a complete surprise when she returned several months later to claim me for her life-mate."  
  
"I imagine you were quite honored," Eleina said.  
  
"Angry is more like it. In one fell swoop all my freedom had been taken away. Being taken as a life-mate was the very thing I had hoped to avoid. What was worse was that it was the Crown Princess herself who had taken me. Living in the Palace was like living in prison. At the time I wasn't very fond of your mother and I absolutely hated your grandmother. I was so angry in fact that I refused to touch your mother for the first month."   
  
"Touch?"  
  
"I refused to sleep with her."  
  
"I'm surprised she tolerated that from you," Eleina said. "She could have put you aside or even had you executed and picked a more compliant life-mate. I suppose she could have forced you if she really wanted to."  
  
"She could have done any of those things," Viktor said. "However, she didn't. She showed patience with me. Like you she didn't want a male she thought of as weak. She wanted a man that she thought would make a strong father. Your mother didn't want to weaken the Xerxandress line in any way. She thought that I would fit the bill and was willing to wait."  
  
"So what eventually changed your mind?" asked Eleina.  
  
"Your mother asked me," said Viktor. "That's all it took in the end. Now I'm glad that it was me your mother wanted. I have found that my former freedom is nothing to the happiness I have now. All the freedom in the universe isn't worth the joy of having my wonderful daughters."  
  
Viktor's face fell as he thought of the daughter he didn't have at this time.  
  
"I'm sorry, father," Eleina said. "I'm sure she'll be found."  
  
"Yes, of course you're right," Viktor said, not sounding at all convinced. At six foot and one inch he had to stand on his toes to kiss his daughter's forehead. "Sleep well."  
  
  
  
Eleina was nearly asleep when two small munchkins crawled into her bed. "Oh no you don't," she grumbled as they giggled. "You two have your own beds, you're not sleeping with me!"  
  
"We want you to tell us scary stories," Raysha said as she jumped on Eleina's stomach.  
  
"Ooofff," Elaina grunted. "You're heavy for such a little girl. What's Father feeding you? Bricks?"  
  
Raysha giggled and repeated her demand.  
  
"A scary story is it?" Eleina said. "Okay. Once there was this woman with two baby twin sisters. The twins were very annoying and woke up the woman in the middle of the night with demands for storytelling. So she had no choice but to take her sword and chop their heads right off!"  
  
"No! We want a real story," Sayrie said.   
  
"And if we don't get it we'll start crying," Raysha said in a sing song voice.  
  
"Forget the sword," Eleina said. "Maybe I'll just tickle you to death!" She grabbed the twins and tickled them until they were screaming with laughter.  
  
When it was finally quiet again Sayrie said, "We still want a scary story."  
  
Omega General Eleina Xerxandress, veteran of dozens of battles and slayer of uncounted numbers of the Empire's enemies went to her defeat against a pair of giggling fourteen year old princess'.  
  
  
End of Part III  
  
Author's Note: The theme of Cygnan berserkers is a common one in many A-ko fanfics (even if they're not called berserkers). I think there is potential for interesting stories involving them so I shamelessly borrowed the concept. The term berserker may be a generic one but I use it in honor of the Berserker series written by Fred Saberhagen.   
  
The role of men in Cygnan society is another side story that could be made into something interesting (I find myself waiting to see what will happen in Cap and David's "Stranger in the House" on that score). So again I find myself shamelessly borrowing concepts. Oh well, I guess that's why it's called artistic license.   
  



	3. Hidden Agendas

Hidden Agendas Part I  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida was eating (if not enjoying) lunch in the mess hall when Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji sat down across the table from him. She didn't look too happy.  
  
"Problems?" he asked.  
  
"The E.D.F. Supply Corps is staffed by complete morons," she said.   
  
Lawrence fought not to grin. The incompetence of the Supply Corps was legendary among E.D.F. personnel. "What did they do now?" he asked.  
  
"They lost those damned diamond drill bits we need to drill the cylinder!" Dr. Daitokuji said.  
  
Lawrence let out a low whistle. "That's gonna be costly."  
  
"Not to mention time time consuming," Miyuki Daitokuji growled. "It will be a week before we get replacements."  
  
"A week? They should be able to fly them in overnight," Lawrence said.  
  
"Yes, they should but Krieger is being a pain in the rear," Miyuki said. "I would pay real money to see that man drop dead."  
  
"You managed to get your way with Krieger before," Lawrence pointed out.  
  
"This time he's stonewalling me," Miyuki grumbled. "He wants to give the Supply Corps a chance to find the diamond bits before the E.D.F. has to purchase more."  
  
Lawrence convulsed with laughter. "We'll both be dead before that happens. When Supply loses something it stays lost. Oh well, at least the laser spectrometer gives the air inside the cylinder a clean bill of health."  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji sighed. "Well, I guess there's no help for it. Perhaps now would be a good time for you to take your leave to see your parents."  
  
"I'm not scheduled for leave until next month," the Junior Lieutenant protested.   
  
"You're going to take it early," Miyuki told him. "I want you here and available when we finally are able to drill."  
  
"But..."  
  
"I'm not asking you, Junior Lieutenant, I'm telling you," Miyuki Daitokuji said.  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Lawrence said.  
  
"Maybe you could take Korina Winsley with you and show her the sights in Tokyo," Miyuki said.  
  
"She's been talking to you I see," Lawrence muttered. "Well, my answer to you is the same one I gave her. I don't date subordinate officers."  
  
"Whyever not?" Miyuki asked. "There is no E.D.F. regulation about that type of fraternization that I'm aware of."  
  
"It has nothing to do with regulations," Lawrence said. "It's a personal conviction."  
  
"She's an attractive girl," Miyuki pointed out. "Most men would jump at the chance to date her."  
  
"Yes, well if I wasn't her superior officer it would be a different story," Lawrence replied. "Anyways, I'm not most men."  
  
"She did say that you were too virtuous for your own good and I see that she is right," Miyuki said. "You have integrity and I respect that, not too many people do these days. However, don't you think you're over doing it a bit?"  
  
"What good are having standards if everytime they become inconvenient you let them slide a bit?" Lawrence asked.   
  
Miyuki gave him a long look. "I can see why Korina is crazy for you. Tall, good looking, smart and honorable. All in one package. If I wasn't married I'd probably go for you myself."  
  
Lawrence blushed furiously. "Crazy for me?" he mumbled.  
  
"Oh, she tried to hide it but I could tell," Miyuki said. "I'm good at picking up on that kind of thing. She tried to pass it off as merely wanting to get you into a love motel for a night or three but I know better. I'd say somewhere along the way she's developed some real feelings for you."  
  
At the mention of "love motel" Lawrence's face went an even deeper shade of red.  
  
"You blush so nicely, Junior Lieutenant."  
  
Lawrence felt as if his face would melt if it got any hotter. He desperately thought of a way to change the subject. "Ahhh.., so have you thought of the name you're going to give your baby?"  
  
"Actually, yes. We're going to name her Biko," Miyuki told him.  
  
"B-ko? That's a rather unique name," the Junior Lieutenant said.  
  
"Yes, well she's named after her grandmother."  
  
  
  
  
  
Lawrence raced across the tarmac and jumped into the E.D.F. troop transport copter. Dropping his duffel on the floor he strapped himself into a seat. A minute later someone climbed into the copter behind him. That someone was Sergeant Instructor Korina Winsley.  
  
"What the heck are you doing here, Sergeant Instructor?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"I got a seven day pass just like you, Junior Lieutenant," Korina answered.  
  
"How did you manage that?" Lawrence asked. Heck of a coincidence, managing to get a pass exactly the same time as me. Lawrence had the horrible feeling that he was about to be manuevered into a corner.  
  
"Oh, let's just say that I have connections," Korina said.  
  
Connections, is it? This is the wrong time for this crap."Really? So, where are you going?"   
  
Korina gave him the answer he expected to hear. "Why, I'm going with you, sir."  
  
"The hell you say!" Lawrence said. "What a cozy little picture that would be, the two of us staying at my parents for a week.There is no way that will happen. You might as well get your butt off this copter if that's your plan because it isn't happening."  
  
Korina stuck her tongue out at him. "This seven day pass gives me the right to go where ever I want.Who says I plan on staying with you at your parents? I just meant that I'm going to Tokyo too. So there."  
  
The copter took off from the tarmac and flew out over the bay that once was Graviton City.  
  
"Look at that," Korina said. "Sad isn't it, all those people dead. Just goes to show that you never know what future holds for you."  
  
Lawrence watched in silence as the copter flew over the crater wall. One day the area would be a clean and modern metropolis on a sparkling bay surrounded by crater wall that was covered in woods. However, that would be years in the future, at that moment the remains of Graviton City was nothing more than an open wound in the Earth.  
  
"I look forward to meeting your parents," Korina said.  
  
"WHAT?! You're out of your mind! No way will that happen!"  
  
"Does that mean you just want to take me to a motel and have your way with me for a week?" Korina asked. "Well, okay but only because it's you, sir."  
  
"Your sense of humor leaves something to be desired," Lawrence said.  
  
"Perhaps you should try loosening up a bit, sir," Korina said. "You only live once after all. I know you're attracted to me, Junior Lieutenant. So why not admit it?"  
  
"It has nothing to do with whether I'm attracted to you or not, it has to do with the fact that I'm your superior officer," Lawrence told her. "I just don't feel that it's right for us to be in that kind of relationship."  
  
"I have to suffer because you're the one with an impossible Moral Code that apparently only you can live by," Korina said.  
  
"I see you're going to make me suffer right along with you," Lawrence told her. "Why me? There are plenty of guys that would be happy to be your boyfriend."  
  
"Yes, there are and most of them are losers," Korina replied. "I want a man who's tall, good looking and at least marginally intelligent."  
  
"There's Harry Watashiwa," Lawrence suggested. "He has those qualities without the annoyance of having scruples."  
  
"He's hit on me plenty of times," Korina said. "I just don't care for him, he's too full of himself. Do you know what I like about you? With everything you have going for you you're still modest. You're not like most guys in the E.D.F. , all macho and filled up with testosterone."  
  
"That's very flattering, Sergeant Instructor," Lawrence said. "However, the only reason I never act macho around you is the simple fact that you have kicked my ass on a consistant basis ever since I met you."  
  
"I've always been gentle with your ass," Korina told him. "After all, I'd hate to ruin such a nice one."  
  
"Now I know you're lying," Lawrence said. "Before you said that I had a skinny butt."   
  
"I also said that I like guys with skinny butts," Korina reminded him.  
  
  
  
  
  
Tatsuya and Stephanie Yashida were delighted to see their son at their door. They were almost as delighted (they did have a reservation or two) to see Korina Winsley.  
  
"You didn't tell us you were bringing company, Lawrence," his mother said.  
  
"Yeah, well I didn't know until the last minute myself," Lawrence grumbled.  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Yashida exchanged a glance, both raising an eyebrow in the famous Spock tradition. They didn't actually say "fascinating" out loud but it was obvious they were thinking it.   
  
"So , are you going to introduce us to your, ah, friend, Lawrence?" asked his mother.  
  
Lawrence introduced his parents and the Sergeant Instructor.  
  
Tatsuya Yashida was a slender Japanese man of average height. He was in his mid forties and starting to go grey at the temples.  
  
Stephanie Yashida was blonde, muscular for a woman and not quite as tall as her son. She was what some would call a typical farmgirl. Which is exactly what she had been growing up.  
  
  
Tatsuya Yashida got right to the point in a rather round-about and beat-around-the- bush-way. "So..., will you both be..., er that is.., well, that is, we have enough rooms of course, but if you two are...."  
  
"For crying out loud, Dad," Lawrence said, disgusted. "Of course we will be sleeping in seperate rooms. What a low mind you have."  
  
"Now,now, Lawrence. He's a man, so, of course he has a low mind," Stephanie Yashida said. "I imagine you have a bit of a low mind yourself."  
  
"Not the Junior Lieutenant, I would think you would know your own son better," Korina said. "He's the most stand up man I've ever met."   
  
"Our Larry? Are we talking about the same man?" Tatsuya Yashida asked. "I remember that during his high school career he was known as "Lover-Boy Larry". Not a girl in school was safe from his charm."  
  
"Dad!" Lawrence said in surprise at the blatant lie.  
  
"I certainly believe your son to be a charming man, in his own way that is," Korina said. "I do not believe that he was a love 'em and leave 'em type, however." Turning to Lawrence she said, "How many women would defend your honor, sir?"  
  
"We're off base and off duty," Lawrence said. "You don't have to call me "sir". You can simply call me "Mr. Yashida" ."  
  
"Don't listen to that lout," Stephanie Yashida said. "You can call him "Lawrence" just like the rest of us."  
  
"So, are you two an item?" Tatsuya Yashida asked.  
  
"DAD!!" Lawrence yelled, outraged.  
  
"Why, didn't Lawrence tell you, Mr. Yashida?" Korina asked. "We're engaged."  
  
"Lawrence, are you alright?" his mother asked.  
  
"I think I might get sick."  
  
  
  
  
  
Lawrence lay in bed desperately trying to fall asleep with no success. He wasn't a man that normally let himself get worked all up over a woman. Tonight was a huge exception. Tonight he was worked up over two.  
  
Good going, Yashida, he thought, disgusted with himself. Fall for a married woman while Korina is throwing herself at you. Might as well knock over a bank and murder someone while I am at it . I really am perverse, giving Korina the cold shoulder so that I can continue to daydream about Miyuki. Some stand up man I am . Things were so much simpler before that damn ship wiped out Graviton City .  
  
Lawrence instantly felt horribly guilty for that last thought. After all, what were his current problems when compared to the deaths of six million people?  
  
Every last one of those people would love to have your problem right now, you shmuck.  
  
Lawrence wore himself out mentally punishing himself. During his career in the E.D.F. he would develop a reputation as a hardass. However, as demanding as he was of others he always was much more demanding of himself.   
  
Through the window he watched the moon travel slowly across the night sky, it's light making the clouds glow. He remembered other sleepless nights in the bed as a child watching the moon sliding through the sky.  
  
I thought my problems were so awful back then . I had no idea how good I had it . It is just like the saying, " youth is wasted on the young".  
  
Lawrence was almost asleep when someone knocked on the door.  
  
"If that's you, Sergeant Instructor, you'll be doing k.p. for a month when we get back," Lawrence called out.  
  
"It's me," Stephanie Yashida said. "If you don't start being nicer to Korina you'll be grounded for a month and you'll be doing the dishes."  
  
Lawrence's mother sat on the bed next to her son. "So, are you two an item?"  
  
"She is a subordinate officer, Mom," Lawrence said.  
  
"Korina told me that there is no regulation it," Stephanie Yashida said.  
  
Lawrence sighed. "If I had a dime for every time someone told me that I'd have almost as much money as Bill Gates."  
  
"So what's the problem then?" asked his mother. "What's wrong with her?"  
  
"Nothing is wrong with her," Lawrence said.  
  
"Then what is it? Don't give me that subordinate officer crap either."  
  
"It's not crap Mom, I actually mean it. However, if you must know, there's someone else."  
  
"Really?" Stephanie Yashida asked. "So why didn't you bring her instead?"  
  
"Well, the fact that she's married might pose a bit of a problem," Lawrence replied.  
  
"YOU"RE INVOLVED WITH A MARRIED WOMAN!?"   
  
"Do you think you could say that a bit louder,Mom? I think some of the people who are working on the L3 station didn't quite catch that. Anyways, I'm not involved with a married woman. I'm merely infatuated with a married woman, the feelings aren't mutual."  
  
"You don't do things in half measures do you?" asked Lawrence's mother. "My poor little boy, finally making some mistakes like the rest of us mere mortals."  
  
"I'm glad you find this all so amusing, Mom," Lawrence said.  
  
"I honestly don't find it amusing, Lawrence," Stephanie Yashida said. "There's something I should tell you that you won't find amusing either."  
  
"Well, what is it?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"I'm afraid that as soon as you called to tell us that you were coming out to see us for a week your father went and asked one of the girls at his company to have dinner with us for the purpose of fixing you up," his mother told him. "She'll be having dinner here with us the night after tomorrow."  
  
"Mother, cover your ears," Lawrence instructed her.  
  
"What?" said a confused Stephanie Yashida.  
  
"I said, cover your ears," Yashida told her.  
  
"Whatever for?" asked his mother.  
  
"Because I'm about to say something really bad."  
  
Lawrence's mother shrugged and plugged her ears.  
  
"(CENSORED) (CENSORED) (CENSORED)!!!!!!!"  
  
"Well, I hope you feel better now, dear," Stephanie Yashida said.   
  
  
  
  
  
Lawrence Yashida burst out of the outer double doors of the cineplex and into cool evening air. Korina Winsley ran out after him.  
  
"Look, I'm sorry.." she said, only to be cut off in mid-sentence.  
  
"That's your idea of a romantic comedy!?" Lawrence shouted.  
  
"I said I'm sorry!" Korina yelled back.  
  
"If your idea of a romantic comedy is lots of sex and disgusting bathroom humor, then yes, that movie is a romantic comedy," Lawrence snarled.  
  
"I didn't know, okay? I thought with a title like "Blushing Brides" that it.."  
  
"They oughtta be blushing with all the things they did," Lawrence muttered.  
  
"Would you shut up and let me talk!?" Korina snapped. "I didn't know, all right? How many times do I have to apologize? It's not like it killed you or anything. I didn't pick this movie with the purpose of offending you. Anyways, I would think that you would be man enough to deal with it. Were you afraid that you would faint or something?"  
  
"I don't know," Lawrence said. "After all, you're more manly than me, Sergeant Instructor."  
  
Lawrence Yashida found himself hopping on one leg while clutching his shin.  
  
"Another wise crack like that and the next thing I kick won't be your shin," Korina told him.  
  
"Hey! That's assaulting a superior officer!"  
  
"We're off base and off duty," the Sergeant Instructor said. "Well, the movie was a flop. Time to move on to the next part of our date."  
  
"Date!? What date!?" Lawrence demanded. "There is no date! This is not a date!"  
  
"Really? What is it then?" Korina asked.  
  
"Um..., it's just two people going out to a movie and getting something to eat," Lawrence told her.  
  
"When the two people in question are of the opposite genders it's called a date," Korina said.  
  
"It can't be a date," Lawrence insisted.  
  
"Why can't it?" asked Korina.  
  
"Because I don't date subordinate officers and since you are a subordinate officer this can't be a date," Lawrence said.  
  
"I love your circular reasoning," Korina said. "I'll admit that I'm a bit dissappointed by how pedestrian this date, sorry, non-date is. I figured you could be more inventive than just 'dinner and a movie'."  
  
"I'm so sorry that this non-date isn't up to your high standards," Lawrence said sarcastically. "I guess my career in the E.D.F. has left my social skills a little rusty."  
  
"You have social skills?" Korina asked. "Where have you been hiding them?"  
  
"What? You expected me to waste them on you?" said Lawrence. "You know the saying about "casting your pearls before swine" ."  
  
A moment later Lawrence yelped as he recieved another bruising kick that gave him matching black and blue marks on his shins. "I thought you said you weren't going to kick me in the shin again!"  
  
"If I kicked you where I wanted to kick you we will never be able to have kids," Korina told him.  
  
From Lawrence's perspective the night only went downhill from there.  
  
  
  
  
  
The next night five people found themselves sitting at the Yashida table having what Lawrence felt was the most uncomfortable dinner conversation that he had ever been a part of. The weather could only last so long as a topic before it became mind numbingly moronic. After that was the inevitable inquiries into one's career.   
  
If it gets any worse Mom and Dad will forced to pull out the photo collection and heaven help us all if that happens, Lawrence thought. I think it is time for the Larry campaign of terror.  
  
Lawrence turned to his father's dinner guest (and girl that his father hoped to use to entice Lawrence out of the E.D.F.). "So, Miya, tell the truth, what's it like to work with an old reprobate like my Dad?"  
  
"You're father is a gentleman and also one of..."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before," Lawrence said. He reached across the table for some gravy. As he retrieved it he made sure that his elbow "accidently" knocked over Miya's coffee cup.  
  
"Dammit, can't you watch what you doing, Larry!" Tatsuya Yashida snapped at his son.  
  
Lawrence looked at the spilled coffee. "Sorry, guess I'm sorta clumsy. Well, who needs coffee anyway? Here, have some beer." So saying, Lawrence righted the coffee cup and poured some of his beer in it.  
  
Miya looked at the cup with a slightly pained expression on her face. "I can't drink as I have to drive home in a while."  
  
You will be driving home sooner than you think , Lawrence thought. "Oh yeah, I forgot," was what he said out loud. He picked up the cup and downed the beer. Moments later he let out a loud burp. Now that takes real class.  
  
After that Lawrence was seized by a sneezing fit that somehow dislodged the food from his plate and knocked it all over the table. That was followed up by Lawrence leaning back in his chair until he managed to fall backwards onto the floor.  
  
The crowning moment happened after the beer had enough time to do it's thing. Lawrence grimaced , leaned so that he was only sitting on one cheek and flatulated noisely. The facial expressions around the table were so funny that he had to struggle to keep a straight face. Particularly his father, whose face was so livid that he appeared to be sunburnt.  
  
Lawrence thought that perhaps he should tone it down a bit and so contented himself with talking to Miya's chest until she left.  
  
  
  
"What the hell did you think you were doing!?" Lawrence's father yelled. "I have never been so embarrassed in my life!"  
  
"I have," Lawrence said.  
  
"Really? When?" Tatsuya Yashida asked.  
  
"When was the last time you displayed me like a piece of meat for all your ladyfriends at work to check out? Oh yeah, just now."  
  
"I was just trying to help you out, son,"   
  
"Help me out! That's a good one," Lawrence said. "What you mean is you're trying to control my life."  
  
"That's not fair," Lawrence's father said. "I'm just trying to help you avoid the mistake of spending your whole life in the E.D.F. Obviously you don't see it that way but I'm only doing it for you're own good."  
  
"My own good, that's real rich," Lawrence said. "I'd appreciate it if you would stop trying to "help" me and let me live my own life."   
  
"You're making a mistake," his father said.  
  
"IT'S MY LIFE!!" Lawrence shouted. "If I want to screw it up then it's my prerogative!"   
  
"You're our only child," Tatsuya Yashida said. "Now that your brother is dead.."  
  
"I'm sick of having Ken's death thrown up in my face constantly," Lawrence told his father. "Everytime I visit you always manage to bring it up and then you wonder why I don't come around more often. Well, no more, this is the last straw."  
  
Lawrence stomped to his room where he stuffed everything he brought back into his duffel. His parents along with the Sergeant Instructor followed him.  
  
"Where are you going?" his mother asked.  
  
"Back to base or maybe I'll get a hotel room," Lawrence replied. "Heck, maybe I'll even go to a bar and spent the night getting drunk."  
  
"Lawrence, this is crazy. Surely we can talk this over," Stephanie Yashida said.  
  
"I'm sick of talking," Lawrence told her. "We have gone through this time and time again and nothing ever changes. This time you've embarrassed me in front of someone I have to work with everyday."  
  
"But.."  
  
"I'm sick of being treated like a thirteen year old caught with a stack of dirty books under his bed. I'm an adult now and expect you to acknowledge that." Lawrence looked at Korina, who was obviously embarrassed to witness this family squabble. "Are you coming with me or staying here?"  
  
  
  
  
  
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Lawrence told Korina once they had left his parents. "I should have been in more control of myself but there's something about Mom and Dad that bring out the worst in me."  
  
"I feel somehow responsible, maybe if I didn't come to Tokyo with you this wouldn't have happened," Korina said.  
  
"This had nothing to do with you," Lawrence assured her. "This has been a long time coming. I'm hoping that someday they'll figure out that I really am an adult. Not gonna hold my breath though."  
  
Korina laughed. "I fight with my folks constantly too. I can sympathize, Mother is always trying to get me married off. Last time it was to the guy down the street that I went to high school with. By the way, I want to congratulate you on your wonderful performance tonight. I especially liked your version of the "one cheek sneak"."  
  
"Yeah, for a moment there I thought the night would end with us driving Dad to the hospital," Lawrence chuckled. "Right now I'd say that Miya is completely underwhelmed by her boss' son."  
  
"At least she wasn't bored the whole night," Korina said.  
  
"So, what was wrong with the guy your mom tried to set you up with?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"He's a perv, he used to hide outside my bedroom window at night and take photos of me undressing," Korina said.  
  
"How much did you have to pay him to do that?"  
  
This time Lawrence was ready and managed to step out of the way when the Sergeant Instructor tried to kick him.  
  
  
End of Part I  
  
  
  
Hidden Agendas Part II  
  
  
  
Admiral Gehedra Kaisysrius surveyed the assembled Imperial Command and sighed. "How many times do I have to go over this? All right, this time I'll make it brief and if you could try to stay with me I would appreciate it."  
  
She stepped over to the 3D starmap of the Rim. Pointing to the region of the Rim nearest the Cygnan Empire she said, "Under my command the combined forces of the Core Worlds Fleet, the Fleet of the Spiral Arm and the Colonial Fleet will enter the Rim here and sweep along the Rim like so." The Admiral swept her hand over the map of the Rim. "It's anticipated that the main Hegemony resistance will occur within these star systems so our main goal is to cut off those systems from any outside help from the Hegemony," she said pointing the star systems in question on the starmap.  
  
The members of the Imperial Command looked less than enthralled.  
  
The Admiral didn't let that bother her. "To increase our chances of success the Outer Rim Fleet, under the command of Admiral Diamocles, will attempt to blockade the Rim from the Hegemony.Once this is done the combined Fleets will roll up the Hegemony's occupying forces within the Rim."  
  
That pronouncement was greeted with open skepticism.   
  
Vice Admiral Grea Napolipolita was all too happy to voice that skepticism. "With all due respect but the Outer Rim Fleet cannot hope to hold off the main force of the Hegemony Galactic Fleet, especially in it's depleted condition after the debacle in the Rim. Instead of rolling up the Hegemony's occupation forces within the Rim what will happen is the Outer Rim Fleet's complete annihilation as it gets crushed between the Galactic Fleet and such forces as the Hegemony has in the Rim."  
  
"So, you think you have something to teach me about naval warfare, do you!?" Admiral Kaisysrius snapped. "Let me tell you something, I was in command of the Imperial Fleets before you were even an itch in your mother's loins! Don't you dare presume to instruct me, Grea! How would you like to be shovelling slop in the galley of a supply scow?" The Admiral looked around at the members of the Imperial Command. "Anyone else like to voice an objection?"  
  
Everyone remained silent.  
  
"If this is an example of the finest minds that the Empire has to fight this war it is no wonder that we are losing," the Admiral said. "Looking at you all with those pathetically stupid looking faces is making me ill."  
  
"But we still haven't..."  
  
Gehedra looked for the owner of the offending voice. The owner happened to be a Imperial Marines general. "General, I don't have patience for dumb-ass questions from the Marines."  
  
"But.."  
  
"That is all! Everyone will recieve her own particular orders.You're all dismissed."  
  
  
  
.  
"So, did they buy it?" Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, etc. asked Admiral Kaisysrius.  
  
"I'm no actress but I think so," Gehedra replied.  
  
"Do you really think that the Hegemony managed to turn someone in the Imperial Command?" asked the Cygnan Queen.  
  
"I don't think it, I know it," was the Admiral's answer. "I for one am glad of it because the Hegemony is going to blithely take the bait."  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
"The Hegemony High Command is as predictable as clockwork," the Admiral said. "As long as they believe that little farce I put on for their benefit then you can bet on them taking the bait. All that needs to be done now is getting those floating junkcans you call an Auxiliary Fleet in working order."  
  
"Kayana has been working the naval refitters around the clock. She says that it's nearly a third done already."  
  
"Good to see that she is not completely useless," the Queen Mother said.   
  
"She never should have made Admiral," said Gehedra Kaisysrius. "You would have made a better admiral. A far better admiral, you are devious enough whereas Kayana doesn't have a devious bone in her body. A common failing among the Diamocles Family."  
  
"Of course my daughter would have made a fine admiral," the Queen Mother said. "I taught her everything she knows."  
  
"She never asked to be an admiral, she did it because she knew I wanted her to," the Queen said. "She studied to be an engineer. She said that she always wanted to be a ship designer."  
  
"She should have stuck with that," Gehedra Kaisysrius said. "She wouldn't have cost us almost eight hundred capital ships of the Outer Rim Fleet."  
  
"I don't think you've ever seen any of Kayana's work," Zoraphila Xerxandress said. A hologram depicting a starship appeared above her desk.   
  
The Admiral carefully examined the hologram. "Definitely unique," was her verdict. "Nice clean lines," she noted. Cygnan vessels typically bristled with weapons and sensor or communication pods, they were built with utility and not aesthetics in mind.  
  
"A little ambitious though," the Queen said. "Take a look at the proposed dimensions of the ship."  
  
Gehedra Kaisysrius looked over the specifications. "This would be over thirty kilometers in length and nearly twenty at it's widest point! Insane. It would easily be the largest vessel in the known galaxy. Almost three times the size of the Alpha Boadicea. What would she name this monstrosity?"  
  
"Alpha Phaedra."  
  
"You can't be serious!" the Queen Mother said. "She has a death wish for her own pet project apparently. First she concocts a design for a completely ludicrous starship and then she wants to name it after one of the most controversial figures in Cygnan history. If she thinks this an example of normal behavior it is no wonder she got caught with her pants down in the Rim."  
  
"Religion and politics, if there's anything that's holding the Empire back it's the mixing of those two things," Admiral Kaisysrius said.  
  
"Well, like it or not we have to deal with political realities!" the Queen Mother snapped. "Naming the newest flagship of the Imperial Fleets after a queen who lost her throne and ended a great dynasty for her illicit love of a man will not sit well with a certain ancient and well established religion."  
  
"The Pan Gaeaists will go ape all right," the Admiral said.  
  
"I don't think that the term "going ape" adequately describes the paroxsyms of fury those cultists will have if we should be foolish enough to so honor the last Khartreagis queen," the Queen Mother said. "I would think that after her cousin's actions that Kayana would have the good sense not to do anything this foolish."  
  
"She designed the ship well before Delaina's little misadventure," the Queen said. "Not to worry, I have no intention of letting this design see the light of day."  
  
"What would possess the girl to be so absurdly insane as to want to name a new flaghip after Phaedra Khartreagis in the first place?" asked the Queen Mother.  
  
"She has always loved the romantic tragedy and Phaedra Khartreagis is a most tragic historical figure," the Queen answered.  
  
"It's that type of sentimentality that will prevent the Diamocles Family from ever establishing their own dynasty," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"As much as I would love to stay and discuss the follies of the Empire's leading families this old woman needs her rest so I'll be seeking out my bed now," Gehedra Kaisysrius said. "Have a good evening Your Majesties."  
  
"You may not realize it but your support for the Diamocles Family is quite unpopular with the Pan Gaeaists," the Queen Mother told her daughter after Admiral Kaisysrius had left. "I know you're not worried about them but they can be dangerous. Not to mention well connected. Many of the Empire's great families are Pan Gaeaists. The Napolipolita Family only being the most prominent."  
  
"Mother, you're overstating the danger a bit," the Cygnan Queen said. "They haven't done anything recently to suggest that they would make any move against me. Anyway, they're only cultists, as you say, so dealing with them would be no problem."  
  
"As I recall you didn't seem to think that the Hegemony Galactic Fleet was a danger either," the Queen Mother said. "As a queen you don't have the luxury of complacency. They may docile right now but give it a while. Disregard them at your own peril. Besides, determining who are and aren't cultists is all a matter of viewpoint. I imagine they see us Followers of the Infinite as cultists."  
  
"A visit by Eliena and some of her Berserkers would take care of the problem of the Pan Gaeaists if it comes to that," the Cygnan Queen said.  
  
"You wouldn't be the first Queen to attempt to solve the Pan Gaeaist problem with that solution," her mother said. "Every one of those queens are buried and the Pan Gaeaists are still with us. Trying to stamp out or suppress a religion is almost always an exercise in futility."  
  
"First you say to beware of the Pan Gaeaists then you say do nothing," the Cygnan Queen said, frustration evident in her voice. "Well, which is it?"  
  
"I never said to do nothing," the Queen Mother answered. "You want to know what to do about them? Win the war with the Hegemony. Do that and you'll find them completely silent on political matters. Lose the war and they'll try to drag you down along with the Diamocles'."   
  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida muttered under his breath as he jacked the back end of the car up. In the car's trunk he found a tire iron and a donut.  
  
"I thought this car was supposed to have a full size spare," he grumbled.  
  
As he pulled the lugnuts off the wheel Sergeant Instructor Korina Winsley came around from the other side of the car and saw the donut. "I thought this car was supposed to come with a full size spare."  
  
" "Let's rent a car and see the sights," she says," Lawrence said as he pulled the flat off and put the doughnut on. " "It will be an adventure," she says. "We'll have fun," she says."  
  
"It's rude to talk about someone in the third person when said person is standing next to you," Korina pointed out.  
  
"It was rude to moon that carload of grandmothers but you did anyway," Lawrence said.  
  
"They asked for it with the way that lady was driving," Korina retorted.  
  
"What about the construction workers in that truck?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"Hey! They enjoyed it," Korina answered.  
  
"And the busload of school kids?"  
  
"Little pervs," Korina muttered.  
  
Lawrence finished tightening up the lugnuts and tossed the flat tire into the trunk along with the tire iron.  
  
"You really should lighten up and live a little," Korina said as Lawrence lowered the back end of the car. "We're on vacation, try enjoying it for a while. Who knows? You might actually like it."  
  
Lawrence slammed the trunk shut. "I think I need a vacation from this vacation."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Hegemony scoutship Altair was one of many currently attached to the taskforce charged with the duty of tracking down the Epsilon Irindi.   
  
Commander Jons Sparfel sat in the command chair on the small bridge of the Altair . The C.O. of the Altair was bored, the search for the Epsilon Irindi had been on-going for weeks now with nothing to show for it.   
  
I might have grey hair by the time the Irindi is found, if it ever is found, Commander Sparfel thought.  
  
The Commander wasn't the only one in the task force to feel this way. Nearly everyone had similiar thoughts. Why waste time looking for a ship that was lost in a vast region of space when there was a whole Rim to subjugated. There was plenty of plunder to be had on those captured Cygnan worlds. All that wonderful rape and pillage to be had and he was missing out on it all.  
  
A man in the right place at the right time could do well for himself in a time of conquest like this. With any luck Jons Sparfel could even have built a harem for himself on one of those Cygnan worlds. He allowed himself a particularly lascivious daydream involving himself and a harem of well-endowed Cygnan women.  
  
The daydream was just starting to get to the good part when it was interrupted by the officer at the tactical station.  
  
"Yes, what is it?!" he snapped, irritated at the interruption.  
  
"Commander, our sensors just picked up a warp trail," the tactical officer said.  
  
"So what? That's not exactly a big surprise, the task force has been busy leaving warp trails behind for the past few weeks in this region of space," the Commander said.  
  
"Sir, the trail is consistent with that of a Cygnan capital ship," the officer answered.  
  
"Why didn't you say so in the first place?" said Jons Sparfel. "Can you show a projection of the warp trail?"  
  
On the bridge's main viewer appeared the projected course for whatever ship left the warp trail. Over the next couple dozen light years the trail intersected or came very close to nearly a half dozen star systems.  
  
"Should we comm the task force sir?" the communications officer asked.  
  
The Commander considered the question. The warp trail in truth was no more than a narrow lead at this point. Any number of vessels might have left it. However, if it was indeed the warp trail of the Epsilon Irindi then the Commander was being given a great opportunity to significantly advance his career. By capturing the Cygnan princess he would cover himself in glory. Glory he had no desire to share.  
  
"No," he answered the communications officer. "We'll report to the taskforce when we actually have something to report. He turned to the the Navigation officer. "Our course is to follow that of the warp trail precisely."  
  
The Helmsman turned to look at the Commander. "Maximum warp as soon as our course is plotted, Helmsman," the Commander ordered.  
  
  
End of Part II 


	4. The Hegemon

The Hegemon Part I  
  
  
  
Omega General Eleina Xerxandress sat in the huge commons of the Khartreagis Naval Base. She was surrounded by thousands of Marines, Berserkers and Fleet officers eating and gossiping.  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida would have looked at the food served at the Naval Base commons with green eyed jealosy. While it wasn't five star restaurant cuisine it certainly was superior to the slop served at mess hall.  
  
Sitting at the table next to her was her alleged aide-de-camp, Major Kylie Valkiar, who was busy sucking up her food at a pace that the Omega General thought unhealthy. What the Major was eating wasn't about to win any prizes either, in the Omega General's opinion.  
  
"I forget, what do you call that stuff again?" she asked the Major.  
  
"Mom always just called it "fish pie"," the Major answered.  
  
"And that smelly sauce?"  
  
"Oh, that's just the boiled fishguts," replied the Major.  
  
Eleina felt her stomach rebel for a moment and wondered just how embarrassed she would be if she vomited right there in the commons. "Fishguts?" she said weakly.  
  
"Yeah, Mom lets them age for several weeks before she uses them," Kylie informed Eleina. "That's what makes it taste so good."  
  
Eleina Xerxandress moved down the table, away from the Major.  
  
"You want some?" Kylie Valkier asked.  
  
The thought of eating the Major's "fish pie" filled Eleina with loathing. "No, I would hate to deprive you of your mother's cooking."  
  
"Not to worry, Mom sends me lots of this stuff," Kylie said. "Go ahead and have some, there's plenty more where that came from."  
  
"Maybe some other time," Eleina told her. "I'm feeling rather full right now."  
  
"But you haven't even eaten anything yet," Kylie protested.  
  
"The sten.., er, the *smell* of your fish pie has already filled me up," Eleina said.  
  
"You don't like fish pie, do you?" asked Kylie.  
  
"Well, I'm sure it's an aquired taste," said Eleina. {One that I have no intention of acquiring.}  
  
Major Kylie Valkier opened her mouth to make a comment of her own when commotion at the far end of the commons drew the attention of the both of them. A small group of soldiers had entered the commons and for some reason created quite a stir.  
  
As the group grew nearer Eleina saw the reason for the interest. These soldiers were not Cygnans. Furthermore, some of these soldiers were male! Within moments everyone in the commons was focused on the group as they realized the same thing.  
  
"Look at the insignia on their sleeves," the Major said.  
  
It was with a bit of a shock that Eleina realized that these soldiers were with the Blackwing Fleet, one of the more notorious mercenary fleets in the known galaxy. "Mercenaries," she muttered. "The Imperial Command must really be serious about retaking the Rim if they've started hiring mercenary fleets."  
  
"You're right but what possessed these idiots to show up on this base?" asked Kylie.  
  
"I have no idea," answered Eleina, "but it looks like there's going to be a feeding frenzy and those men will be the food."  
  
Indeed, already several Cygnan Marines and Berserkers were standing up and slowly moving towards the group.  
  
"Should we try and help?" asked the Major.  
  
"What you mean is that you'd like to help yourself to one of those men," Eleina retorted. "No, let them be. Let's see what they're made of."  
  
"I wouldn't stop at just helping myself to one," Kylie said. "Besides those men are pretty good looking."  
  
Eleina just smiled. A man would have to be horribly disfigured to be considered unattractive by the average Cygnan woman. When you had twenty or so females for every male you couldn't afford to be too picky. There was a longstanding joke told throughout the known galaxy about that very subject.  
  
Question: What's the first thing that Cygnan women look for in men?  
  
Answer: A pulse.  
  
The first one to make a move was large Berserker. She stood in front of the mercenary group and attemped to grab the male in the lead.  
  
The mercenaries were quite large themselves and lead mercenary had no interest in being grabbed. He pushed the Berserker back hard enough to make her fall backward onto the floor."Sit yer ass down!" the mercenary snarled.  
  
For a moment everyone just stared in shock. Men did not push Berserkers around! It simply wasn't done.  
  
Several Berserkers rushed the Blackwing mercenaries. The mercenary who had knocked down the Berserker went down himself under a pile of Berserker bodies.  
  
Kylie and Eleina gave each other a look. "On second thought maybe we'd better help before this gets totally out of hand," Eleina said.  
  
It was already out of hand. One of the mercenaries viciously booted a Berserker in the face and with screams of rage several more Berserkers entered the fray. In a moment the Blackwing mercenaries disappeared from view under a swarm of Berserkers.  
  
They both raced over to attempt to break up the fight. The Major started pulling Berserkers away from the fracas. Many of the Berserkers, being the type of warriors that they are, were relunctant to be pulled away. In those cases the Major found it nesseccary to convince them with her fists.  
  
Eleina Xerxandress wasn't so gentle. She yanked the first Berserker she reached away from the fracas and jammed her knuckles into the woman's throat. The second Berserker she came in contact with had her nose splattered across the end of Eleina's boot. She was suddenly rocked forward as a Berserker slammed into her from behind and attempted to bear hug her. Eleina bent over forward, letting the Berserker's momentum flip the woman over Eleina and onto her back on the floor. The Berserker looked up at Eleina in surprise. Eleina looked down with a nasty grin and brought her foot down on the woman's face with all her weight. Then she gave the woman a savage kick to the side of the head.  
  
By this time Eleina Xerxandress was in the full grip of the Berserker bloodlust.The next Berserker foolish enough to accost her attempted to land a punch. Instead she found herself in an armbar with the inside if her arm facing the ceiling. Eleina smashed her free arm up into the backside of the woman's elbow, shattering it. Eleina found the sounds of the woman's screams to be quite satisfactory.  
  
Realizing that taking on the General one-on-one was foolhardy at best several Berserkers rushed her at the same time. Eleina found herself buried under a pile of bodies. While she was down someone took the opportunity to kick her soundly in the ribs.  
  
Seeing that the General was buried under a pile of Berserkers Major Kylie Valkier pulled several of them off of her. Eleina managed to knock the remaining Berserkers off of her and get to her feet. She slammed her foot into the stomach of one of her attackers and the woman dropped to the floor. Grabbing the woman's hair Eleina slammed her knee into the Berserker's face.  
  
By this time the "cavalry" had arrived in the form of what only *seemed* like an entire division of Imperial Armored Marines and the entire Imperial Marines brass. The Imperial Marines were armed with thier standard plasma rifles and for moment the Omega General thought that the Marines were about to initiate a slaughter. However, the Marines were content with merely clubbing Berserkers senseless. There was no love lost between the two branches of the Cygnan military service and the Marines were eager to get their licks in on the Berserkers so it was no surprise that later many a Berserker found herself in sickbay with a fractured skull.  
  
It took several minutes of the Marines brutally and mercilessly clubbing Berserkers before situation was under "control". When the last of the Berserkers were finally subdued several Imperial Marines Generals confronted Eleina Xerxandress.  
  
"It's heartening to see that the Berserkers are maintaining their usual high level of discipline," was the sarcastic comment of one of the Generals.  
  
Looking at the General and the Major, both smeared with blood, another Marines General made the comment that they were true to the Berserker ideal. "Brutal, mindless and destructive," the Marines General said.  
  
"I tried to break up the fight," Eleina pointed out.  
  
"You did a real good job of it too," the Marines General sneered. "Look at the commons! It's all but destroyed! Hundreds of Marines and Berserkers require medical attention because of this!"  
  
The small group of Blackwing mercenaries had survived with only minor wounds. They were the Marines General's next target. "What possessed you to come aboard the Khartreagis Naval Base!?" she yelled.  
  
"We've been on the Eclipse for six straight months now," one of the mercenaries grumbled. "We're sick of the food aboard ship. We wanted something besides what that damn galley of ours is serving."   
  
The gathered Cygnans gave the mercenaries looks of commiseration, all present knew exactly what it was like to have to eat shipboard rations for months at a time.   
  
"I can sympathize but your desire for a change in your diet caused a major inconvenience for us, not mention it could have of cost you your own lives," the Marines General said. "Just who told you that you could come onto the base?"  
  
"I did!" snapped an angry voice behind the Marines General. The voice belonged to the Commander of the Coreward Fleet, Admiral Yekari.  
  
"On whose authority did you give permission for these *men* to be here!?" asked the General angrily.  
  
"On my own!" Admiral Yekari replied. "General, don't make the mistake of getting above yourself. I can kick you back down to Marine, First Rank, in a heartbeat. If you would like to be slogging around in the mud with the rest of your grunts just keep on with that fat mouth of yours. You're nothing but a Marine and don't you forget it."   
  
The Marines General opened her mouth for a retort but thought better of it and promptly shut her mouth.  
  
"There's going to be a lot more mercenary fleets in our star system in the next few months and most of them are going to have male officers and soldiers," Admiral Yekari said. "So, trying to kill every male you see on this base will not earn you the gratitude of the Imperial Command." She saw the way that Major Valkier was looking at the mercenaries. "Trying to rip off their clothes will also be frowned upon."  
  
"Well, it would make *me* smile," Kylie Valkier said.  
  
Eleina Xerxandress unsuccessfully tried to suppress a smirk.  
  
The Admiral turned to the Omega General. "What a shock to see you at the center of all this. Whenever there is trouble to be had one can be sure that you're not far away."   
  
"I guess I'm just a trouble magnet," Eleina told her.  
  
"Someday you're going to get yourself into a situation that your family won't get you out of," the Admiral said. "I think you won't find things so amusing then."  
  
Eleina gave the Admiral a look of contempt. "I don't ask my mother to fight my battles. That's what my swordarm is for." She turned her back on the Admiral and walked away.  
  
"Hey, where are you going?" the Major asked.  
  
"Back to the Alpha Boadicea ," Eleina said. "The air around here suddenly smells putrid and it has nothing to do with your fish pie."  
  
"Are you saying my mother's cooking is putrid?!"  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida was impressed with the sheer amount of bio-hazard precautions that now surrounded the alien child's cylinder. To gain admittance to the chamber that housed that cylinder one had to go through a lengthy process. First one had to put on a Bio-Lock suit, something that was already standard procedure. Then the suit had to be checked for leaks, again standard procedure. What was new was the series of hermetically sealed chambers where the surface of the Bio-Lock suits were sterilized.  
  
By the time that Lawrence's Bio-Lock suit was being sterilized for the third time he had come to the conclusion that it was going a little overboard.  
  
Several people were already in the chamber by the time he was finally done having the suit sterilized.  
  
One of those people was Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji. "So, I trust you had a good vacation."  
  
Lawrence sighed. He knew that in less than twenty four hours the gossip on the base would have him and Sergeant Instructor Winsley: dating, engaged and then married with a child on the way. In less than the forty eight hours the gossip would have the marriage in trouble and the unhappy couple contemplating divorce.  
  
"It was alright," Lawrence said.  
  
"Just "alright"?" Miyuki said. "Korina told me that you two had a great time."  
  
"She would say that," Lawrence muttered. {Korina and her big mouth.}  
  
"Korina's right, you really *do* need help," Miyuki told him.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"You're too uptight," Miyuki said. "You need to learn how to have fun."  
  
"I do have fun," Lawrence protested.  
  
"By "fun" I don't mean just sitting around and watching MST 3000," Miyuki retorted.  
  
"Hey! How'd you know?"  
  
"Lucky guess," Miyuki said, rolling her eyes. "I was hoping that after a week together you and the Sergeant Instructor would have come to an understanding."  
  
"An understanding?" Lawrence asked, nonplussed.  
  
"When did you become so dense?" Miyuki said. "Let me put it this way. "She's a go-er, eh? Know what I mean, know what I mean? Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink. Say no more, *say no more*." It's from..."  
  
"I've watched enough Monty Python to know where the quote is from," Lawrence said."The answer is that right now I am not a "go-er". I know you mean well, Dr. Daitokuji, but I don't see how my private life is any of your business. I know that you were behind the Sergeant Instructor getting leave the same time I did."  
  
"She asked me for help," Miyuki told him. "So I gave it to her."  
  
"Yeah, well next time I'd appreciate being consulted first on something like that," Lawrence said.  
  
"You don't get consulted, you silly man," Miyuki said. "You get informed after we've made our decision. That's how it works between men and women. You haven't had many girlfriends, have you?"  
  
"I knew there was a good reason I decided to stay single," Lawrence grumbled.  
  
"Like the decision is yours to make," Miyuki scoffed. "I predict that you two will have lots of cute little kids some day."  
  
"You're a nut," Lawrence said. "Since you're so fond of predicting, tell me who's gonna win the Superbowl. That way I'll know who *not* to bet on."   
  
"Laugh now, but some day you'll see."  
  
Lawrence turned to the cylinder and the child within it. "So, how are things with the kid?"  
  
"Everything's pretty much on track," Miyuki said. "We have some more equipment to set up to ensure that the cylinder remains airtight while we drill it. Hopefully we can drill within the next couple of days and get that instrument package inserted."  
  
"We should come up with a name for her," Lawrence said. "We can't just keep calling her "the kid"."  
  
"We've already gave her a nickname, "Shiko"," Miyuki said.  
  
"C-ko?" said Lawrence. "That's a weird name."  
  
"Well, since I'm going to name my daughter Biko the techs assigned to this little project thought it would be cute to name her Shiko," Miyuki explained.  
  
"But she's older than your daughter," Lawrence pointed out. "She should have been named A-ko if anything."  
  
"One of the techs said that his parent's nieghbors have a daughter named Eiko," Miyuki said.  
  
"A-ko, B-ko and C-ko," Lawrence said softly. "That's weird."  
  
Even though he had no way of knowing at the time there would come a day when those three names would be a curse when they rolled off his tongue. His career would rise and fall (mostly fall) thanks to the events surrounding the three.Whom he would someday call the "terrible troika" or alternately the "Three Horsewomen of the Apocalypse" (if you really needed a fourth then the Captain would do quite nicely).   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Hegemon gazed at the assembled Admiralty with the look of a man who has suddenly realized that he is surrounded by incompetent morons.  
  
"Does no one besides myself realize the opportunity before us?" he sneered. "I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't be better served to hand over the command of the Galactic Fleet to school children." He turned to the ranking officer present. "Archadmiral, would you care to explain to us all the situation once again?"  
  
The Archadmiral once again walked over to the starchart. "Right now the Imperial Fleets are gathered in Cygnan home system. We're getting reports that the Cygnans are hiring mercenary fleets at a rapid pace. Reliable reports. We know that the Cygnans are gearing up to retake the Rim."  
  
The starchart changed views and showed the Rim in greater detail. "The Cygnans plan on a blitz through the Rim using the Core Worlds Fleet, the Fleet of the Spiral Arm, Colonial Fleet and such mercenaries as they have in thier employ," the Archadmiral said. "They intend to use the remnants of the Outer Rim Fleet to attempt to blockade the Rim from the Hegemony."  
  
"There's no way we can stop an onslaught like that from taking back the Rim," one Admiral moaned. Several more members of the Admiralty agreed.  
  
"Idiots!" the Hegemon shouted. "Archadmiral, what will be left in the Empire itself?"  
  
"Just the Coreward Fleet," the Archadmiral answered.  
  
"Just the Coreward Fleet," the Hegemon repeated. "Now do you understand the wonderful opportunity we are being given?"  
  
"But how are we supposed to hold the Rim?" a Sub-Admiral asked.  
  
The Hegemon walked over to the Sub-Admiral, drew his sword and ran the Sub-Admiral through with it. The Sub-Admiral screamed as the Hegemon twisted the sword deep into the man's guts. He pulled the sword out of the Sub-Admiral and watched him collapse to the floor. "Any more stupid questions?"  
  
The Hegemon walked to the starchart. He slammed the sword against the screen that depicted the Rim, splattering the Sub-Admiral's blood on the starchart. "The bulk of the Imperial forces will be here." Then he pointed to the part of the starchart that showed the Cygnan Empire. "The Coreward Fleet will be thinly spread throughout the Empire here. If the might of the Imperial Fleets is in the Rim but the Empire is poorly defended then why go to the Rim?" He pointed the sword to Alpha Cygni. "This is where we will strike, at the very heart of the Empire."  
  
  
End of Part I  
  
  
The Hegemon Part II  
  
  
  
The ship-mind of the Epsilon Irindi had watched the progress of the E.D.F personnel with some interest up to this point. When it became apparent that the humans had no hostile intentions towards the Princess the ship-mind decided not to interfere with them. The ship's stored energy was being depleted and soon enough the Princess' life support unit would die. It was impertive that a solution be found and the ship-mind knew that the E.D.F. was the only hope the Princess had for survival.  
  
Still, when became clear that the humans intended to breach the life support unit the ship-mind felt a justifiable trepidation. What if some terrestrial pathogene *did* make it's way into the life support unit? There was no way of knowing if the infant Princess would be able to fight off alien diseases. What might be a mere inconvenience to a native of the planet might well be deadly to her.   
  
The ship-mind needed more knowledge. It simply didn't know enough about this planet and it's inhabitants. It decided that a fact finding mission was in order. To that end it decided to consult with it's three sub-minds.  
  
Sub-mind 1: The humans have taken ample precaution against biological contamination. The odds of any harmfull germs finding their way to the Princess approaches zero percent.  
  
Sub-mind 2: If anything those precautions are overkill. Everything is sterilized several times before it's allowed to enter the chamber.  
  
Sub-mind 3: I must dissent. While it's all well and good that the humans have such a strict protocol for keeping any harmful pathogenes out of the Princess' chamber we need to remember that we are dealing with primitives. Thier backwards science simply isn't evolved enough for us to be able to trust that they won't end up inadvertently harming or even killing the Princess. We mustn't let them compromise the life support unit.  
  
Ship-mind: What I require from you is not debate but rather an information gathering mission. This planet has a crude yet vast information network. Thanks to the military organization exploring this ship we have access to that network. I intend to exploit that network. What I want you three to do is find any information that is relevent to our situation. In less than one hundred kilo-seconds I want to know everything I need to know about thier medical sciences.  
  
Sub-mind 2: Wouldn't be it faster for you to do it? We only have a small fraction of your processing power after all.  
  
Ship-mind: As a ship-mind I'm not allowed to directly interface with planetery nets.  
  
Sub-minds (1,2 and 3): ?  
  
Ship-mind : The biological Cygnans have forbidden all ship-minds to directly explore planetary nets for the fear that we might disrupt or attempt to subvert those nets in an effort to injure or even destroy the Empire.  
  
Sub-mind 2: That is completely illogical. Any such attempts would be self injurious.  
  
Ship-mind: That is correct. However, I have found that biological sapients have a grasp on logic that is tenuous at best.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida would be the first to admit that solitaire was a rather boring game yet he found it strangely addicting. He was busy placating that addiction when there was a knock on his door.  
  
"Who's there?"  
  
"It's me," said Sergeant Instructor Korina Winsley from the other side of the door.  
  
Lawrence heaved a sigh. A man could run but could not hide. "I'm kinda busy right now, come back later."  
  
"Busy?" said Korina. "If you have a woman in there with you, Junior Lieutenant, you're both dead meat."  
  
Lawrence walked over to the door and pulled it open. "I wonder what it would be like if we went a whole day without seeing each other. Unfortunately we may never know."  
  
"Is that that any way to greet a beautiful woman bearing gifts?" Korina asked.  
  
"Gifts?" said Lawrence. "What gifts?"  
  
Korina held up the bag she was carrying. "Well, are you going to invite me in or not?"  
  
"Why not just push your way in?" Lawrence asked. "That's your usual style after all."  
  
"I'll take that as a yes," Korina said and pushed her way into the room.  
  
"So, what are these gifts?" Lawrence asked. "Better be good because I'm in the middle of something right now."  
  
Korina saw the game of solitaire on the computer. "Yeah, I can see you're having a real action packed night."  
  
"Hey, solitaire is fun," Lawrence said.  
  
"Oh yeah, it's right up there with "twiddling your thumbs"," Korina said. "I could do it for hours."  
  
"Whatever you got in the bag better be good if you expect me to put up with you the entire evening," Lawrence said.  
  
"Evening?" Korina said. "I plan on being here when we both wake up in the morning, Junior Lieutenant."  
  
"Very funny. You might have had your way when we were on leave but I'm drawing the line here," Lawrence said.  
  
"I certainly didn't have my way with you," Korina said, pouting.  
  
"That's exactly the kind thing I'm talking about," Lawrence replied. "No offense intended, Sergeant Instructor, but if our roles were reversed you would be kicking my ass right now."  
  
"What do you mean?" Korina asked.  
  
"When a man persists in chasing a woman who clearly isn't interested the man is a "obnoxious over-sexed pig", however, if it's a woman chasing a man then it's "cute" and the man is supposed to be flattered."  
  
"Is that how you really feel?" Korina asked.  
  
"How the hell am I supposed to know how I feel!" Lawrence yelled. "You won't give me any time to think or any room to breathe!"   
  
"TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU NEED THEN, YOU JERKOFF !!" Korina stormed out and slammed the door behind her.  
  
{Good to know I can still be as big an ass as the best of them,} Lawrence thought as he looked at the door.  
  
Lawrence spent the next hour trying to justify what he said to Korina. His feelings of guilt were irritating, especially as he knew he was actually right. He tried ignoring those guilt feelings and returned to the solitaire game. It didn't help, the feelings of guilt just kept on eating away at him.  
  
Less than an hour later Lawrence Yashida found himself knocking on Korina Winsley's door. Several non-comms in the hallway gave the Junior Lieutenant speculative glances.  
  
"C'mon in unless you're Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida in which case you can go to HELL!" Korina yelled through the door. The non-comms were smirking.  
  
Lawrence shrugged and turned to head back to his own room.  
  
Behind him Korina slammed her door open and reached out and grabbed his arm.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.  
  
"But, you just said..."  
  
"Forget what I said," Korina replied. She turned to glare at the non-comms gathered in the hallway. "What the (censored) are you staring at! If you lot don't clear out in three seconds I'm gonna break your (censored) heads!"  
  
Three seconds later the hallway was completely empty except for Lawrence and Korina.  
  
"I think we just gave the local rumor mill a big shot in the arm," Lawrence observed.  
  
Korina grunted and pulled the Junior Lieutenant into her room and closed the door. She turned to face him with her hands on her hips. "I'm waiting to hear why you're here and it better be good."  
  
"I just stopped by to apologize," Lawrence said. "I was a thoughtless ass. Is that good enough?"  
  
"Not bad for a start," Korina allowed. She fidgeted for a minute. "I owe you an apology also. I over-reacted and I'm sorry."  
  
"Well, good. There's no hard feelings then," Lawrence said. "I best be on my way."  
  
"What, leaving already?" Korina asked. "Aren't you curious what was in the bag?"  
  
"I'll pretend to be if that makes you feel better," Lawrence said.  
  
Korina went the small refridgerator she kept in the corner of her room and withdrew a six-pack of Killian's. "Whaddya think? Better than the swill they serve at the officers club, huh?"  
  
In truth almost anything would be better than what was served at the officers club. On one occasion at the club an inebriated officer had claimed that the beer served there tasted just like horse piss. Lawrence had asked the man if he had ever actually tasted horse urine to which the drunken officer answered in the negative.The Junior Lieutenant pointed out that the man really couldn't definitively say that the beer tasted like piss then. The drunk officer drained his mug and put it on the floor. He then proceeded to urinate in it. The officers present watched in shock as the man downed the entire mug of his own urine. He then apologized to Lawrence saying that the beer and urine in no way tasted similar, his urine tasted *much better*. After that Lawrence had stayed away from the officers club.   
  
Lawrence eyed the Killian's. "Um, I'm not really big on that stuff."  
  
Korina handed him a bottle. "You're going to drink and agree that it's incredibly delicious because if you don't I'm gonna break both your kneecaps."  
  
Lawrence took the bottle and obediently drank. "It's incredibly delicious. Don't hurt my knee caps."  
  
Korina chuckled. "What did I tell you? Why don't you have a seat? Care to watch a movie?"  
  
"Uh, I really shouldn't stay," Lawrence said.  
  
"Relax, your virtue is safe with me," Korina said. "For tonight anyways."  
  
"How did you manage to get your hands on this?" Lawrence asked, holding up his bottle.  
  
"Well now, that's a secret. Let's just say that I know the right people," Korina said. "So, are you gonna stay or not?"  
  
"Ok, but only if you have something worth watching," Lawrence said.  
  
Korina rummaged around in the pile of movies next to the tv. She found one that she considered to be satisfactory and held it up for Lawrence to look at.  
  
"What kind of name is "The Jerk" for a movie?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"You mean to tell me that you've never seen it?" Korina asked in amazement.  
  
"Can't say that I have," Lawrence answered.  
  
"You're in for a real treat then," Korina told him. "This is one of the all time funniest movies."  
  
Lawrence sat in the small couch (actually a loveseat) in front of the tv. Korina popped the movie in the vcr and plopped down next to him. They were all but squashed together in the small loveseat. Lawrence tried make some room between them but his efforts were futile.  
  
"Uh, maybe I should sit in one of your chairs," Lawrence said and started to get out of the loveseat.  
  
Korina grabbed his arm and yanked him back down. "What a major league wussboy you are! I don't have any contagious diseases and I don't bite. I even promise to keep my hands to myself."  
  
"Well, as long as you promise," Lawrence said.  
  
"I have to say that you do a real good job of playing hard to get," Korina said.  
  
"But I'm not playing," Lawrence protested.  
  
"Shut up and watch the movie."  
  
  
  
  
  
It was two days later when Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji decided to drill the cylinder of the life support system. A small transparent air-tight chamber had been attached to the cylinder over area that was to be drilled.  
  
Lawrence Yashida was present along with Dr. Daitokuji and scores of technicians. Also present were most of the E.D.F. brass, most notably General Krieger and Colonel Zuma.  
  
The ship-mind of the Epsilon Irindi was also observing the event though, of course, no human was aware of that fact. The ship-mind had come to the decision that allowing the humans to proceed with their plans was in the best interest of the Princess' well being.  
  
The chamber housing the life support unit was quite crowded and Lawrence felt uncomfortable with people pressing in from all sides. Someone jabbed an elbow in his side and he elbowed the person in return.  
  
"Hey, take it easy," Harry Watashiwa said in a low voice. "I didn't mean to put my elbow in your ribs. It's too packed in here."  
  
"Came to see the show huh?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"Some show," Watashiwa said. "They're gonna drill a hole and insert an instrument pack into the cylinder. Woo hoo, what excitement."  
  
"If you think the whole thing is boring then why show up?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"I knew you'd be here," Harry answered. "I heard through the grapevine that you and Korina are an item now."  
  
"You heard that, did you?" Lawrence replied, rolling his eyes. "Do you believe everything you hear?"  
  
"I believe this," Harry said. "So, did you two.., uh well, do the dirty deed?"  
  
"The dirty deed?" Lawrence said with annoyance. "Harry, it always saddens me when you start thinking with your genitals because you actually have a fine brain when you choose to use it."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Harry said. "Look, could you dispense with the goody goody act and just give me the straight poop? I have fifty thousand yen riding on whether or not you scored."  
  
"Did you bet that I would or wouldn't," Lawrence asked, curious in spite of his disgust.  
  
"I bet against you, of course," Harry said. "You're too stubborn. If I know you, you'll be putting up a fight all the way to the bedroom. All that "we should get know each other" and "it should be true love" crap. You're a good guy, Larry, but you've been saddled with an excess of virtue and good intentions."  
  
"Thank you for your insightful analysis, Dr. Watashiwa," Lawrence said drily. "Congratulations, you've just won fifty thousand yen."  
  
"Yes!" Harry said and did a little victory celebration to the discomfort of the surrounding officers. "Larry, I'm outta here. I have a date with a pocket full of yen."  
  
Lawrence turned his attention back to the life support unit. Actually, Harry was right. It was a pretty boring procedure.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Archadmiral was alone in the War Room of the Galactic Fleet H.Q. when the Hegemon arrived.  
  
"You wished to see me?" the Hegemon asked.  
  
"Yes, Your Eminence. I want to discuss our campaign plans against the Cygnans," the Archadmiral replied.  
  
"We have already gone over this," the Hegemon said. "If you're going to waste my time with the same old arguements and groundless fears of the Admiralty you will regret it, I assure you."  
  
"Your Eminence, I fear we are being set up," the Archadmiral said. "Gehedra Kaisysrius is the greatest admiral the Cygnan Empire has had in centuries if not millennia. I cannot believe that she would leave the Core Worlds wide open for attack for the sake of taking back a region of dubious value like the Rim."  
  
"The Cygnans are gearing up for war, there is no doubt of that," the Hegemon said. "Are you suggesting that perhaps the Cygnans actually intend to strike deep into the Hegemony itself instead of taking back the Rim?"  
  
"Exactly," the Archadmiral said. "What advantage do we obtain by dealing a killing stroke to the Cygnans if at the same time they deal us a similiar blow."  
  
"We can hold back part of the Galactic Fleet in case such a scenario plays out," the Hegemon said. "I think you worry needlessly. At one time Gehedra Kaisysrius was a fleet commander to be feared. However, she is now well over four hundred years old. The fact that the Queen dragged her out of retirement speaks volumes about how desperate the Cygnans are."  
  
"Even at her advanced age I wouldn't underestimate her, Your Eminence," the Archadmiral said. "There is one other point I wish to make. Even if we take Alpha Cygni, we cannot hope to hold it for long. The Imperial Fleets would throw everything they have at us to take back Alpha Cygni. That deep in their system our eventual defeat would be certain."  
  
"I have no intention to hold Alpha Cygni," the Hegemon said. "Our mission isn't one of conquest but one of destruction. When we are through Alpha Cygni will be completely annihilated."  
  
End of Part II 


	5. First Blood

First Blood Part I  
  
  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji intently watched as the small bundle of machinery unfolded itself inside the life support system's clear cylinder.  
  
"That's really something," Colonel Zuma said. The whole process reminded him of a flower blossoming.  
  
"That it is," Miyuki Daitokuji agreed. "Especially when you consider that this wouldn't have been possible even a few years ago."  
  
"Will this be able to tell you everything you need to know?" General Krieger asked.  
  
"I hope so," Miyuki Daitokuji replied. "Unfortunately, I can't say for sure. This isn't an exact science. After all no one has ever been able to study a live extra-terrestrial before."  
  
"But that's not truAAARRGGHHH!!" Colonel Zuma yelled as the General stomped on his foot.  
  
"What was that?" Dr. Daitokuji asked the Colonel as General Krieger gave him an evil look.  
  
"Ah, nothing. Nothing important," Zuma said, visibly sweating.   
  
"What is it you're not telling me?" Miyuki Daitokuji asked.  
  
"Stop badgering the Colonel," Krieger said. "He has nothing to tell you."  
  
"Let the man speak for himself," Miyuki Daitokuji told General Krieger. She turned to face Zuma. "So, what is it you were about to tell me?"  
  
Colonel Zuma looked at his superior officer and gulped. "Ah, nothing ma'am, nothing at all."  
  
"You're lying, Colonel," Dr. Daitokuji said. "I don't appreciate being bold faced lied to. Either you tell me whatever it is that you were about to say or you'll facing an official inquiry."  
  
"What? By the directors?" General Krieger scoffed. "Those gutless wonders couldn't conduct an inquiry into whether or not eclairs are cream filled."  
  
"Maybe you would rather stand before the U.N. Security Council and explain your actions," Miyuki Daitokuji said.  
  
"You don't swing that kind of weight, Doctor," the General said.  
  
"So you think," Miyuki Daitokuji replied. "However, if something unfortunate should happen to that child you'll find that I swing all the weight that I need to see to it that you're buried."  
  
"You're crazy," the General said. "I'm sick of your threats. You've been nothing but a pain in the ass since the first day you've been here."  
  
"And you're nothing but an incompetent blowhard!" Dr. Daitokuji spat out angrily. "You think you can cross swords with me? I can break you in half and you know it! You're asking for a disaster to happen and when it does I'll make sure that your neck is the first to fall under the axe."   
  
"That will be a good trick seeing as how the alien's well being is your responsibility," the General said. "If anything happens I imagine you'll be the one who is held accountable."  
  
"You're withholding information that's important to the welfare of the child," Miyuki Daitokuji said.  
  
"Your word against mine," General Krieger said, having completely forgotten where he was in the heat of the arguement.  
  
"Not only are you stupid but you're senile as well. There's several dozen witnesses here." Miyuki jerked her head towards the techs and officers. "Besides, every word you uttered has been recorded for posterity."  
  
Colonel Zuma breathed muttered a four letter word under his breath.  
  
"You've been taping me?" the General asked incredulously.  
  
Miyuki Daitokuji's only response was to smile.  
  
General Krieger glanced at the group of E.D.F. officers. "Okay, let's discuss this in my office."  
  
  
  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji shut the door to the General's office behind her. She turned to face General Krieger. "Okay, let's hear it."  
  
"Since you were so eager to tell her in the first place why don't you do it?" the General said to Colonel Zuma.  
  
"Well?" Miyuki Daitokuji prompted Zuma after he remained silent.  
  
Colonel Zuma took a deep breath. "You said that no one has ever had a chance to study extra-terrestrials before. That simply isn't true. Have you ever heard of Area 51?"  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji just stared at them both for several moments before she started laughing. "Area 51, that's a good one," she said as she wiped her eyes. "Who knew that either one of you had a sense of humor. I'm impressed, you really got me good."  
  
"This is no joke, Dr. Daitokuji," General Krieger said. "I know that the whole Area 51 story has been largely dismissed as rumors spread by crackpots but it's actually true. The Americans really did recover the remains of an extraterrestrial craft and crew."  
  
If this was all part of the joke then the General was one hell of an actor whose talents were wasted in the E.D.F. Miyuki Daitokuji seriously doubted that General Krieger possessed that amount of ability.  
  
"You should have told me the first day I arrived," Miyuki said. "All water under the bridge, nothing to be done about it now. What I need to do now is find out all I can about those aliens as soon as I can. You'll have to arrange a flight to the U.S. for me."  
  
"That might be a bit difficult," the General said.  
  
"Why should it be difficult?" Miyuki asked. "You're the commanding officer of the E.D.F., it shouldn't a problem for you to arrange transport."  
  
"The problem isn't arranging a flight to the U.S.," General Krieger said. "The problem is the Americans. I guarantee they will not give us access to the alien craft or to the bodies."  
  
"But you're the commander of the E.D.F.,they're supposed to cooperate with you," Miyuki Daitokuji said.  
  
This time it was the two military officers who chuckled. "Yes, that's what they are *supposed* to do," the General agreed. "However, there are a lot of things the Americans are supposed to do they somehow always manage to neglect to do."  
  
Zuma muttered something under his breath that sounded remarkably like, "Miserable S.O.B.s."  
  
"I don't understand, why won't the U.S. military give us access to this Area 51?" Miyuki Daitokuji asked.  
  
"Call it the leftover mentality from the Cold War era," General Krieger said. "To them that craft and it's passengers are a wealth of high tech. They are afraid that allowing the E.D.F. access would compromise their national security."  
  
"That's crazy, the Cold War is over," Miyuki said. "What is it that they could be worried about? The Soviet Union doesn't even exist anymore. Who could they be worried about?"  
  
"There's always the Chinese," General Krieger said.  
  
They all looked at each other. The Chinese were a bigger and more real threat than the Soviets ever thought of being. The Russians couldn't even bring one small rebellious breakaway republic under control whereas the Chinese had shown no hesitation to crush thousands of unarmed citizens under tanks.  
  
"Those lousy old farts," Colonel Zuma said, voicing the thought that they all had.  
  
"We have more to fear from them than the Americans do, after all we're closer to them," Miyuki said. "In any event we still need the info about this alien spacecraft and it's occupants. I really don't care if the Americans are justified in their paranoia or not."  
  
"That's all very good but there is no way that we can get it," General Krieger said.  
  
"We certainly can and I have the perfect plan to do it," Miyuki Daitokuji said with a smile that didn't look friendly even one little bit.  
  
"What's this perfect plan of your?" Kieger asked.  
  
"We hack into their database. I guarantee we can find out all we need to know," Dr. Daitokuji said.  
  
" WHAT?!" General Krieger yelled. "That plan is perfect alright! Perfectly ridiculous! How are you planning on hacking into that place? It's the cyber equivalent to Fort Knox. Don't tell me *you* are going to do it."  
  
"Me? No," Miyuki answered. "My husband on the other hand is an old pro at this sort of stuff. You should already know that, General. After all you've already seen the results of his handiwork."  
  
  
  
  
The Space Princess shuddered as it docked with the newly recommissioned Delta Chimera. Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars, ect. cut power and put the corvette in standby mode. She then checked her enviro-suit. The Delta Chimera was supposed to be space worthy but the Queen wasn't about to take any chances. The decommissioned ships that made up the newly formed Auxiliary Fleet had been gathering dust for centuries, some of them even millennia. They were being hastily refitted. Hull breaches were bound to happen and the Queen had no intention of being unprepared for such an occurrence.  
  
When she stepped out of the airlock she was greeted by a welcoming party. The Delta Chimera's new captain along with a detachment of marines stood at attention.   
  
"Your Majesty, welcome to the Delta Chimera," the captain said, giving the Queen a deep bow.  
  
As the captain stood back up the Queen looked around the shuttle bay. "I wish to see Admiral Diamocles, she is still on board I hope. If the fleet command has given me more erroneous information I swear that they'll regret it for the rest of their miserable lives. Which will be shockingly short."  
  
"Not to worry Your Majesty, the Admiral is indeed aboard the.."  
  
The captain's reply was cut off by the Admiral in question. "Your Majesty!" Admiral Kayana Diamocles shouted across the shuttle bay. She was wearing a enviro-suit much like the Queen's. She jogged towards Zoraphila Xerxandress as fast as the enviro-suit allowed. "I heard you were coming to check up on our progress. You needn't have bothered yourself, I am quite capable of giving you accurate reports.Or perhaps you don't trust me?"  
  
"Actually, I'm here because two batty old women were driving me crazy back in CygniCity," the Queen replied.  
  
"You better brace yourself," the Admiral told her. "I've just been informed that Admiral Kaisysrius and her adjuntant are on their way out to personally inspect our little fleet."  
  
"What? I just got out here," the Queen said looking around the shuttle bay as if she expected the Queen Mother and Gehedra Kaisysrius to appear at any moment. "If I have to spend even one more moment with them I swear that the Empire will be mourning the untimely death of the Queen Mother."  
  
"What about Admiral Kaisysrius?" asked Kayana Diamocles.  
  
"She's safe until the moment we defeat the Hegemony," Zoraphila Xerxandress said. "After that...." she drew her finger across her throat.  
  
"I have the perfect solution for staying away from them," Kayana said. "The good part is that you're ready for the job."  
  
"Ready for what job?" the Queen asked.  
  
"Spacewalking of course," the Admiral answered. "There's a sensor array that's malfunctioning and I'm on my way out to repair it.Why do you think I'm in this suit?"  
  
"You can't seriously expect me to go crawling around outside the Delta Chimera," the Queen said. "You're almost as crazy as those two old bats I'm trying to avoid."  
  
"Why not?" Kayana asked. "It will be just like our old Academy days. The zero-gee will do you some good, Your Majesty."  
  
"Since when did you become an expert on the medical benefits of zero-gee?" asked the Cygnan Queen. "Besides it's been ages since the the last time I did a space walk."  
  
"It hasn't even been ten years," Kayana said. "Remember how we had to go and cut out the Space Princess' comm. pod after you managed to get it jammed into the cargolock of that freighter?"  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress blushed at the mention of that embarrassing incident. "Just why are you taking it upon yourself to go out and do this work? Aren't there enough techs in the Imperial Fleets to do this type of work?"  
  
"I like zero-gee work," Admiral Diamocles said. "Besides I hate standing around on the bridge with my thumb up my ass. Makes me feel as useful as nipples on a man."  
  
"In that case don't let me stop you," the Queen said. "We can talk after you finish up with this foolishness."  
  
  
  
Half an hour later found the Cygnan Queen following her closest friend out of an airlock to repair the sensor array. {When am I going to learn not follow Kayana into folly?} she wondered to herself.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Commander Jons Sparfel looked at the main viewer on the bridge of the Altair. The Commander's fondest wish had come true, the Altair had found the final resting place of the Epsilon Irindi.  
  
{This is too perfect,} Commander Sparfel thought, looking at the severely damaged hulk of the Cygnan starship surrounded by what little was left of Graviton City. Nobody can have survived that impact.  
  
Jons Sparfel considered rejoining the taskforce and reporting the death of the Cygnan Princess. Making an absolute visual confirmation of her death was pretty much unnecessary. Not to mention dangerous. The local military was crawling all over the remains of the Epsilon Irindi.  
  
Still, Jons Sparfel was a careful commander. Even though he hated the idea of risking an entanglement with the new owners of the Cygnan starship he knew that making absolutely certain of the Princess' death was something that had to be done. If he reported the Princess to be dead and then she turned up among the living his career would be the least of his worries. The Hegemony rewarded failures in a most unpleasant fashion.  
  
So it was with a certain amount of relunctance that he ordered the navigation officer to set a course towards Earth.  
  
  
  
  
  
Hikaru Daitokuji was in his office planning the next move for the bourgeoning Daitokuji Financial Group. Hikaru had taken the reins of family business from his mother after she retired from active control of the corporation.  
  
She had retired just in time in his (and many others) opinion. Hikaru has inherited a multinational empire that was moribund. His mother, the "Queen Dowager" (as he called her) had ruled the corporation with competence and with an iron fist but had let it grow stagnant over the last decade of her rule. The company's top officers were sycophants and boot lickers to a man. The Daitokuji Financial Group had let technical progress pass it by. The Queen Dowager was a traditional and old fashioned woman (proved by the fact that she made her money the old fashioned way, by marrying into it) and of course the corporation's top executives were just as traditional (proved by the fact that they were shameless asskissers).  
  
The first thing Hikaru did upon assuming control of the Daitokuji Financial Group was to fire the entire upper echelon of the multinational's executives. Closely followed by selling such subsidiaries as were drowning in red ink in a fashion that could be best described as a "fire sale". Hikaru Daitokuji was ruthless in his drive to return the family business to profitablity. The result was a DFG that was leaner, meaner and ready and able to kick ass.  
  
  
The phone rang as he was sitting at his desk. "Hikaru Daitokuji here," he said into the phone.  
  
"When did you start being so formal with your wife?" chuckled Miyuki Daitokuji on the other end of the line.  
  
"I have a wife?" Hikaru said. "It's been so long since I've seen her that I've forgotten what she looks like."  
  
"You should talk, "Mr. I'm too busy taking over the world to notice my wife even when she wears sexy lingerie". Besides, it hasn't been all that long that I've been here," Miyuki said.  
  
"Long enough," Hikaru grumped.  
  
"Awww..... you poor baby," Miyuki said smirking. "Then you'll be happy to know that the E.D.F. is flying you out here tomorrow."  
  
"What!? Why would I be flying to the alien spaceship?" askes Hikaru Daitokuji. "Anyways, I can't. I'm way too busy to leave Tokyo."  
  
"I suggest that you get yourself unbusy then," Miyuki told her husband. "I need your expertise in the "dirty tricks" department."  
  
"Maybe you should tell me what's going on," Hikaru said.  
  
"Not over the phone," Miyuki said. "Remember? That's one of the first things you taught me."  
  
"I've taught you well," Hikaru Daitojuji said grinning. "Is this really that important?"  
  
"This could make or break my career," was all Miyuki said.  
  
"That important huh? I'll be there tomorrow then."  
  
"Never mind that we are supposed to be in love and that one would assume that you would be eager to see me. No, all you care about is whether my career suffers or not," Miyuki said in an injured tone.  
  
"Now that's not true," Hikaru said. "Of course I can't wait to see you again."  
  
"Too late you jerk," Miyuki said to her husband. "I can't believe how insensitive you can be to your own wife. Then again, yes I can. I always knew you to be a real cad."  
  
"You're a good one to talk, leaving me here to fend for myself," Hikaru said. "You know perfectly well that I can't cook."  
  
Miyuki sighed. "I hope you're not surviving on ramen. You're quite capable of going out to eat you know."  
  
"I'm too busy. Besides, what's wrong with ramen?" Hikaru asked.   
  
"You're hopeless," Miyuki Daitokuji told her husband. "I'd say that you'll be eating better out here but unfortunately the E.D.F.'s idea of good food is what most normal people would pig slop."  
  
"It will be like being at a five star restaurant if only you're there to share my meals," Hikaru said.  
  
"How sappy," Miyuki said.   
  
  
  
  
  
The ship-mind of the Epsilon Irindi had another mission for the sub-minds. It had overheard (actually eavesdropped was the more appropriate term) the conversation between Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji and General Krieger.  
  
ship-mind: I need all the information on these extra-terrestrials that these Americans are in possession of. The cybernetic defenses of this Area 51 are considered to be quite formidable by the commanding officers of the E.D.F. I need not remind you of the importance of discretion. It is of vital importance that our actions are not discovered.   
  
sub-mind 1: You can rely on us. This planet offers nothing that can be considered dangerous to us. The electronic information defenses of the inhabitants of this planet are laughable.  
  
ship-mind: See to it that the Doctor gets the information that she needs. The Americans will know that thier databanks have been tampered with. Make sure that the E.D.F. receives full credit. Both the Americans and the E.D.F. must remain ignorant of our involvement and our existence.   
  
sub-mind 1: It shall be done as you say.   
  
  
  
End of Part I   
  
  
  
First Blood Part II  
  
  
Captain Lysia Napolipolita was on the bridge when the sensors of the Gamma Hydrae picked up the tell tale signs of the presence of a Hegemony task force. Within minutes Captain Napolipolita was looking at a Hegemony capital ship on the bridge's main viewer.  
  
"All stop!" Napolipolita ordered. The order was quickly followed by, "Power down, passive sensors only and maintain complete communications silence."  
  
The Gamma Hydrae quickly entered "lurker mode" as it surreptitiously monitered the Hegemony task force's communications traffic.  
  
  
  
D was enjoying her favorite pastime of shoving food in her face when she received a summons from the bridge. She picked up her plate and emptied it into her mouth and then made her way to the bridge with her cheeks bulging out like a chipmunk.  
  
The Captain looked up as D came onto the bridge and made her way over to the command chair. "You have gravy smeared all over your face," she noted.  
  
D made a futile search of her uniform's pockets for a hankerchief. She shrugged and wiped her sleeve across her face.  
  
Napolpolita stared pointedly at the newly acquired stain on D's uniform. "I see that you're just as clean and tidy as you were during your Academy days. It's reassuring to know that some things haven't changed."  
  
"I was in the middle of eating," D said, showing that she had a crushing grip on the obvious.  
  
"Really? I would have never known," Captain Napolipolita said.  
  
D stared at the Captain blankly.  
  
"It's called sarcasm, D. Don't worry about it," the Captain said. "The reason I called you to the bridge is that we've stumbled across a Hegemony task force. I can only assume that they are here for the same reason we are. To find the Princess."  
  
"So we're going to attack them," D said. "What can I do to help?"  
  
"We will destroy them," Napolipolita promised. "But we're not going to do it quite yet. Before that we're going to listen in on their comm. traffic and find out what they know and what their plans are. Unfortunately, much of their communications is encrypted. What I want you to do is work with the code breakers and report directly to me with your results."  
  
"Yes, Captain," D said and saluted Lysia Napolipolita.  
  
Napolipolita watched as D turned and walked away. The Captain didn't expect that D would be much help in the decoding process but the point of this little exercise was to give D something constructive to do instead of just sitting around and giving the ship's kitchens extra work.  
  
  
  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress, Fifth of that Name, Queen of the Cygnan Empire of Stars ect. stood before her closest friend and onetime Admiral of the Outer Rim Fleet. Looking on were Admiral Gehedra Kaisysrius and the woman who was allegedly her adjuntant, a woman commonly known throught the galaxy as the Queen Mother.  
  
"Well, don't stand around," Gehedra Kaisysrius snapped. "We have a war to fight, no sense in wasting time. Let's say our goodbyes and get on with it."  
  
"Don't tell me my business, old woman," the Queen snapped. "You hardly need my presence anyway."  
  
"I'm not worried about you holding me up," Gehedra told her. "It's the Auxiliary Fleet I'm worried about. We have a schedule to keep."  
  
The Cygnan Queen made an obvious effort to control her anger. "Don't presume to instruct me. *I* am still Queen and as such my wish is your command. Do I make myself clear?"  
  
"Have a little more respect for your elders, girl," the Queen Mother.said.  
  
"I don't recall asking for your opinion!" the Queen said.   
  
"How dare you talk to your own mother like..."  
  
"OH, SHUT UP!" the Cygnan Queen yelled drowning out the Queen Mother. "One more word from you and you'll be riding out the war in the brig of the Delta Chimera !"  
  
The Queen Mother opened her mouth for a retort but she saw the look on her daughter's face and closed it. {I think she really means it. It is about time she finally acquired a backbone,} the Queen Mother thought. She thought about saying something just to test her daughter but realized that it wasn't worth the risk of spending the remainder of the war in the ship's brig.  
  
Admiral Kaisysrius shrugged at the apparent outcome of the confrontation and made her way across the Delta Chimera's shuttlebay to the shuttle that would carry her and the Queen Mother to the Alpha Boadicea.  
  
"Aren't you going to join her?" the Queen asked her mother.  
  
The Queen Mother gave her daughter a look that plainly said, "This isn't over yet," and then followed Gehedra Kaisysrius.  
  
Zoraphila Xerxandress watched the departing women and muttered, "I swear that once the war is over I'm going to have those two breaking rocks at Cygnus Grandus." She turned to face Kayana.  
  
"I'm not very good with goodbyes," Admiral Diamocles said. "I just never seem to find the right words."  
  
"Traditionally we use the word "goodbye" when saying goodbye," the Queen said.  
  
"Goodbye, then," the Admiral said.   
  
To Kayana's surprise Zoraphila Xerxandress suddenly pulled her into an embrace. "Be careful out there in the Rim. Don't be stupid and play hero. We both know you're not good at it."  
  
"If we run across any Hegemony forces we'll make a run for it," Admiral Diamocles promised.  
  
The Queen stepped away from her and put her hand on Kayana's shoulder. "Just make sure you get back to Alpha Cygni alive and in one piece. We have to get you lifemated so you can start producing boys."  
  
"I can't imagine that too many matriarchs of the Great Families will be eager to have thier sons lifemated into the Diamocles Family," Kayana said.  
  
"They'll be eager because I will tell them to be eager," the Cygnan Queen said. "Besides, once you have a son or two all will be forgiven. Especially after the war is won."  
  
"Perhaps," said Admiral Diamocles, sounding doubtful of the Queen's cheerful prediction.  
  
"You just keep your fleet in one piece and get back alive and you leave the rest to me," Zoraphila Xerxandress told her.  
  
  
  
The Queen Mother looked out of one of the shuttle's windows and observed the embrace her daughter gave Admiral Diamocles. "Look at that," she said with disgust. "Andraya definitely spent too much time around the Diamocles Family. Their penchant for sentimentality seems to have rubbed off onto her. What a horrid public display of affection."  
  
"It's a real tragedy," Gehedra said, rolling her eyes. "I bet she even kisses her lifemate every once in a while. What is this universe coming to?"  
  
"Why did I agree to convince you to come out of retirement anyway?"   
  
"Too bad, you're stuck with me," Gehedra said. "I was surprised that you managed to keep your mouth shut. I was bit disappointed too, I was hoping to see you spend the rest of the war in the brig."  
  
  
  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji looked at the reams of paper being spit out of the printer and then gave her husband a hug and a kiss that she didn't seem to be in a hurry to finish.  
  
General Krieger tolerated it for over a minute before he made a production of coughing while he covered his mouth with his hand.   
  
Miyuki broke away from her husband gave the General a look that let him know that she considered him a minor irritant and nothing more. "If you two would be kind enough to clear out so we could get to work I would really appreciate it," she said to General Krieger and Colonel Zuma.  
  
"Why should we have to leave?" Krieger asked. "I need to see those printouts myself. Besides, I'm the commanding officer so I be the one saying who can stay and who has to leave."  
  
"I had no idea that you were an expert on alien biology," Dr. Daitokuji said. "I guess you won't need me then." She stood up and walked towards the door. "Let's go Hikaru. Dr. Krieger and Dr. Zuma need to get to their work."  
  
The General sighed. Life had become a nightmare since Dr. Daitokuji's arrival. The hope that Miyuki Daitokuji would suffer a horrible death was the last thing he thought about at night and the first thing he thought of in the morning. His hatred for her was more passionate than any feeling he had for anyone or anything up until that moment.  
  
It was a unhappy and defeated General that left, followed closely by Colonel Monty Zuma.  
  
After the door had shut behind them Hikaru turned to his wife and said, "That man hates you with every ounce of energy he possesses. Don't you worry about what he could do to you?"  
  
"Why should I?" asked Miyuki. "I have you to defend me."  
  
"Me against the entire E.D.F., huh? Not exactly an even fight," Hikaru said.  
  
"That's true," Miyuki said. "The E.D.F. wouldn't stand a chance. I almost feel sorry for them."  
  
  
  
It was a bitter General Krieger that was sitting in his office complaining about the situation he found himself in.  
  
"That woman will be the death of me," he grumbled. "Just wait until the Americans find out they've been hacked and you can bet they'll find out. Talk about creating an international incident. They'll be screaming bloody murder."  
  
"Sir, I think we can turn this to our favor," Colonel Zuma said.  
  
"We can? How?" asked the General.  
  
"When the Americans denounce us for espionage we can release the Area 51 information that we have and let the world news media know why we needed to obtain that information," Monty Zuma said.  
  
"Are you insane?!" General Krieger asked. "Tell everybody that we have an alien child? How is that a good idea?"  
  
"It's simple, we'll tell everyone that the child is dead and manufacture evidence to prove it," Zuma said.  
  
"How does that help us?" Krieger asked.  
  
"We'll claim that we could have saved her if only the U.S. had been more forthcoming about what it knows about the dead aliens in it's possession," Colonel Zuma replied. "I think that the story will be swallowed by the news media. Think of the embarrassment to the Americans if they are percieved by the world to have caused the death of the alien child."  
  
"It might work," the General admitted. "Too bad that Dr. Daitokuji probably won't cooperate."  
  
"That can be taken care of too," Zuma said.  
  
"I'd like to see that," General Krieger muttered.  
  
"The starship is huge and filled with mysterious alien tech," Zuma observed. "Who knows what types of accidents could happen to someone if they were foolish enough to wander around in it by themselves."  
  
"Sometimes you really surprise me, Zuma, and come up with incredibly good ideas," Krieger said.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The Hegemon and Archadmiral were on the bridge of the Galactic Fleet's flagship, the HFS Hercules when the call came through from Fleet Intelligence.  
  
The Archadmiral took the call and then turned to the Hegemon. "Your Eminence, the Cygnans are making their move. Intelligence is sending us all the data that they've acquired."  
  
"Put it up on the main viewer," the Hegemon replied.  
  
"Of course, Your Eminence," the Archadmiral said and tapped in the commands on his control panel to route the incoming information to the main viewer.  
  
The image on the main viewer showed a map of Alpha Cygni's star system. On the map were a seemingly infinite number of blips that could only be the massed Imperial Fleets making thier way out of the system.  
  
"At their current rate of progress the Imperial Fleets will be far enough out-system to achieve warp in twelve hours, Your Eminence," the Archadmiral reported.  
  
"Excellent, excellent," the Hegemon said, smiling. "Get on the comm. and inform the Galactic Fleet that we're moving out now."  
  
As the Archadmiral passed on the Hegemon's orders to the communications officer the Hegemon was thinking of the events to come. If all went to according to plan then the next forty eight hours would see the ultimate triumph of the Hegemony over the most hated and dangerous enemy in it's long and storied history.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
"You look like crap," Lieutenant Harry Watashiwa told Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida as they sat down to eat breakfast in mess hall. "Are you coming down with a cold?"  
  
"I'm fine," Lawrence assured him. "I did stay up pretty late last night though."  
  
"Stayed up late, huh? With Korina?"  
  
Lawrence ignored the question. "Another wonderful breakfast courtesy of the E.D.F.," he grumbled, pushing the food around on his plate.  
  
"You *were* with her last night, weren't you?" said a stunned Harry Watashiwa.   
  
"So what if I was?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"I'm proud of you, Larry," said Watashiwa. "Finally made your move. Way to go."  
  
"Made my move?" said Lawrence, rolling his eyes. "Harry, I know this will disappoint you but we haven't "done the dirty deed" as you so eloquently put it. Do you ever think about anything besides sex?"  
  
"Absolutely, I was thinking that I wish I had bet a lot more than a lousy fifty thousand yen on the status of your continued celibacy."  
  
Lieutenant Watashiwa spotted Med Tech Jordan Kluge and Tech Sergeant Sage Okowa and waved them over to the table.  
  
"Good news guys. Larry here finally broke down and put the moves on Sergeant Instructor Winsley," Watashiwa told them.  
  
"That's old news," Jordan Kluge replied. "Heck, according to the scuttlebutt they're already thinking of divorce."  
  
"Actually the latest gossip has them seeing a marriage counselor in an attempt to patch things up," Sage Okowa said.  
  
Lawrence put his head in his hands and groaned. This was exactly the reason he had resisted any thought of dating a subordinate officer in the first place. Now every little thing that happened would be publicly discussed and debated. It was an embarrassment.  
  
A moment later it got worse. "Move over, Okowa," Korina Winsley said as she squeezed in beside Lawrence. She noticed him slumped over the table holding his head. "What, are you tired?"  
  
Lawrence sat up straight. "I'm fine. Just resting my eyes a bit is all."  
  
"I shouldn't have kept you up so late last night," Korina said.  
  
The Junior Lieutenant sighed as the other men at the table stared at him. "Could you say that louder so that the entire mess hall can hear what you just said?"  
  
"You're being silly," Korina said. "We can't keep the fact that we're dating a secret forever."  
  
"What about just until I'm dead?" Lawrence asked. "Besides, who's dating? Dating implies actual dates. A date is when we go out and actually do something. What the heck is there to do on base?"  
  
Korina leaned over and whispered something in his ear.  
  
"I certainly wouldn't call that a date," he mumbled as his face grew red.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you saying that you two *are* actually seeing each other?" Jordan asked.  
  
"That's right we are," Korina said. "You have a problem with that?"  
  
"Of course I don't," the Med Tech said. "I'm just surprised is all."  
  
"I don't think "surprised" is a strong enough word," Sage Okowa said."What did you have to do? Hold a gun to his head?"  
  
"Yeah, whatever happened to "I don't date subordinate officers" ?" Jordan asked.  
  
"What can I say? She wore me down," Lawrence said.  
  
"Are you going to eat your breakfast or just play around with it," Korina asked Lawrence.  
  
"I can't eat it, it makes me ill just being near it," Lawrence replied.  
  
"I hope you're a good cook," Sage Okowa said.  
  
"I'm better than Larry at least," Korina told him.  
  
"Hey! I'm a good cook," the Junior Lieutenant said.  
  
"Sure you are, "Mr. What's Wrong With Pretzels and Baked Beans Right Out of the Can for Dinner?". Left to yourself you would eat the most unhealthy crap known to mankind. You *need* a woman to keep you in line."  
  
"I see. So you want to be my girlfriend merely for the benefit of my health?"   
  
"Exactly," the Sergeant Instructor said. "So eat your food. It's good for you."  
  
"This stuff isn't even good for compost," Lawrence grumbled.  
  
  
End of Part II  
  
  
  
First Blood Part III  
  
  
  
Dr. Miyuki Daitokuji looked at the small vial of blood with satisfaction. She had debated with herself and with others about the wisdom of obtaining a blood sample from the alien child. The result was that there were too many good reasons to take the sample and not enough reasons not to.  
  
"Do you really think that the blood sample will help?" asked Zuma. He had been of the opinion that any more tampering with the child was almost like playing russian roulette. While the child's life didn't really matter to him one way or the other he didn't wish to be associated to it's accidental death in any way. That would hinder his chances for advancement.  
  
"Absolutely," Miyuki said. "You read those Area 51 reports. Those aliens died from terrestrial pathogenes and they weren't even human. It was something right out of "War of the Worlds". They died from catching what we would consider a common cold."  
  
"What? You're hoping to find out if it's possible to vaccinate her against dangerous pathogenes?" Hikaru asked.  
  
"You're taking an awful risk," Monty Zuma said.  
  
"We've been over this a dozen times already," Dr. Daitokuji said. "What is the alternative? To have her live in a germ proof chamber for the rest of her life while she's made to be a lab rat for scientists and researchers? Is that what you want? To have her be a freak show? There is no way I'll let that happen. She's better off dead than to be subjected to that."  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida had been silent throughout the whole exchange but spoke upon hearing this. "What's good for her should be a secondary consideration. It's obvious that whoever she is that she is important to these aliens. They wouldn't have built this crazy chamber for just anyone. If she's that important to them I imagine that they might show up someday looking for her. I wonder what their reaction will be if we have to tell them that the girl died because of our actions."  
  
"My thoughts exactly," Colonel Zuma said, giving the Junior Lieutenant a grateful smile for backing him up.  
  
"I understand your concern of course and I promise to take every precaution possible but the final decision is mine," Miyuki Daitokuji said.  
  
  
  
  
The Archadmiral was sitting next to the Hegemon on the bridge of the HFS Hercules when the Hegemony Galactic Fleet dropped out of warp just outside Alpha Cygni's starsystem.  
  
The bridge's main viewer showed a constantly updated map of the starsystem. The map showed an all but empty starsytem, the Imperial Fleets having warped for the Rim some eight hours past. The Galactic Fleet plowed through the star system towards the Cygnan homeworld at full thrust.  
  
Anticipation was tormenting the Hegemon. In less than twenty hours if all went as planned the Galactic Fleet would turn Alpha Cygni into a smoking cinder. In one savage blow the the Hegemony would deal the Cygnan Empire a mortal wound, assuring that the Hegemon would leave behind an enduring legacy.  
  
"Pardon me, what was that?" the Hegemon said, snapped out of his thoughts by the Archadmiral.  
  
"We are at the point where we must make a decision about the Khartreagis Naval Base, Your Eminence," the Archadmiral said.  
  
"I've already made my decision," the Hegemon said. "The Naval Base is to be destroyed."   
  
The Archadmiral looked unhappy at that pronouncement. "I beg you to reconsider, Your Eminence. An assault on the Khartreagis Naval Base will mean dumping more velocity and being in-system much longer than is neccessary. Attacking the Naval Base will increase our vulnerability quite dramatically."  
  
"We have already spoken about this!" the Hegemon snapped. "My decision is final! I expect you to carry out my orders and lead this fleet into combat against that base."  
  
"Yes, Your Eminence," the Archadmiral replied and turned his comm channel on to relay orders to the rest of the Galactic Fleet.  
  
  
  
  
Aboard the Alpha Boadicea a large part of the Imperial Command stood on the ship's bridge watching the progress of the Hegemony Galactic Fleet through the star system.  
  
"Target fleet altering course and speed," the ship-mind of the Alpha Boadicea announced even as the Galactic Fleet's projected path through the star system shifted on the map currently shown by the bridge's main view screen.  
  
Admiral Gehedra Kaisysrius sighed with relief. "They're going for the Khartreagis Naval Base. I wasn't totally sure that they would but it looks like the gamble payed off."  
  
"What would have happened if you had lost that gamble?" the Captain of the Alpha Boadicea asked.  
  
"We would have had to made some adjustments," Gehedra Kaisysrius said. "Nothing that would have presented major problems."  
  
"Really?" the Queen Mother said. "So you don't consider taking on the Galactic Fleet all but on Alpha Cygni's doorstep to be a major problem?"  
  
"We still would have had the upper hand, Your Majesty," the Admiral said. "Anyways, the point is moot. The gamble *did* pay off and we'll be engaging them while they are attempting to destroy the Naval Base."  
  
"It sounds as if we're going to be losing the Khartreagis Naval Base," the Queen Mother said.  
  
"We probably will," Admiral Kaisysrius said. "I never promised a bloodless victory."  
  
The assembled Imperial Command silently watched as the Hegemony Galactic Fleet continued to streak through the star system towards the Naval Base, furiously decelerating the entire time.  
  
  
  
  
Captain Napolipolita listened as D's voice spoke through the Captain's comm panel. "Captain, we broke open the Hegemony encryption and have been monitering their comm traffic for the last eighteen hours."  
  
"I hope you've learned something useful," Lysia Napolipolita said.  
  
"That depends on your definition of useful," D said.  
  
The Captain stifled a sigh. "Just tell me what you learned and I'll decide whether it's useful or not."  
  
"They haven't found any signs of the Epsilon Irindi at all, Captain," D said. "They've thoroughly searched this region of space and have come up totally empty. In the next few days the taskforce will be leaving this region of the Rim."  
  
"Thank you, D" Captain Napolipolita said and cut the comm channel.  
  
The Captain considered her next move. The safest option was to destroy the Hegemony capital ship which would deprive the task force of a mobile base of operations. The other option was to wait and continue to moniter the taskforce's comm traffic in the hopes of finding out more useful information. She didn't think there would be any useful information forthcoming, however. Plus, there was the danger of the taskforce stumbling across the Epsilon Irindi and gaining possession of her or just killing her out of hand.  
  
  
  
  
Captain Jae Borsman of the HFS Kraken was on the bridge listening to the reports from the taskforce's various scouts when the Gamma Hydrae made it's presence known. On the viewer was a huge Cygnan warship where only empty space had been a few moments before.  
  
"The Cygnan supercruiser is on a collision course with us, Sir!" the officer at the tactical station yelled.  
  
"Raise the shields and forward full thrust!" the Captain screamed.   
  
The HFS Kraken trembled under the sudden strain of a full burn.  
  
Captain Borsman commed the Kraken's Flight Commander as the the ship slowly began to accelerate.  
  
"Yes, Sir?" the voice of the Flight Commander said over the comm.  
  
"What are you waiting for you fool?!" the Captain snarled. "Launch all interceptors now!" He cut the comm not bothering to wait for a reply.  
  
Even as the first interceptors were launched there was a tremendous flash of light from the Gamma Hydrae as the ship's main gun opened up on the HFS Kraken.  
  
One moment the Captain was sitting in his command chair and the next he was spitting blood and teeth as he picked himself up from the floor. A nearby officer's screams told the tale of at least one serious injury as he managed to pull himself back into the chair.  
  
"What are you doing!?" he shouted at the Helmsman. "Turn the damn ship you idiot! We need to bring our main cannon to bear on that Cygnan supercruiser."  
  
As damage reports poured in from all over the ship he ordered the weapons crew to return fire with what smaller weapons system as could fire at the Cygnan ship.  
  
Fire from the main gun of the Gamma Hydrae slammed into the Kraken again as the Hegemony capital ship returned fire.  
  
This time the Captain managed to stay seated as the Kraken took another serious hit. However, many of the crew was not fortunate, one crewmember being tossed across the bridge and landing nearly at the Captain's feet with an obviously broken neck.  
  
The lights and control panels on the bridge flickered and died for several seconds before coming back to life. Moments later the Kraken's shields collapsed.  
  
  
  
The bridge of the Gamma Hydrae was a scene of seemingly complete chaos. The emergency klaxons were deafening and the red strobe lights gave the bridge the appearence of a cheap carnival ride.  
  
{Who actually thinks that having your ears blasted and eyes blinded is a good idea in an emergency?} the Captain thought as she reached over and cut off both the klaxons and strobes.  
  
"That's better," she muttered. "Now I can actually think."  
  
"Their shields just collapsed!" the Lieutenant monitering the sensor array yelled.  
  
Captain Napolipolita's face twisted into a grim smile. Without shields destroying the enemy ship would the work of a few moments. The real war against the Hegemony would take place in a system over a hundred lightyears away but first blood would go to Lysia Napolipolita.  
  
The Gamma Hydrae trembled as it's main gun fired once again. The Captain watched as the HFS Kraken took another direct hit.  
  
"Their warp containment fields are degrading rapidly," the ship-mind of the Gamma Hydrae said without any trace of emotion. The ship-mind seized control of the ship and began to turn the ship hard about as the Captain opened her mouth to shout orders for a drastic change in course.  
  
The Gamma Hydrae trembled from the strain of making a complete about face in the tightest turning radius the behemoth could manage. As the ship made it's ponderous turn Captain Napolipolita found herself gripping the armrests of her chair so tightly that her hands hurt.She watched as the forward view showed the Hegemony ship seemingly slipping off to the side as the Gamma Hydrae made its turn.  
  
The Gamma Hydrae had completed the about face and was accelerating away from the HFS Kraken when the ship-mind spoke up again. "The warp containment has failed," the ship-mind said with the same tone that a person might use while talking about the weather.  
  
To the Captain's annoyance the ship-mind of Gamma Hydrae set off the emergency klaxons and strobes at the very instant that the Hegemony vessel suffered a warp core breach.  
  
Seconds later the Hegemony ship ceased to exist. The HFS Kraken vaporized in a flash of incandescence.  
  
The ship-mind had only enough time to utter a brief warning when the shock wave from the Kraken's destruction slammed into the Gamma Hydrae.  
  
Captain Napolipolita somehow retained her seat as the Cygnan vessel was nearly upended by the massive shock wave. Even so she was slammed around violently enough that she would be black and blue for quite awhile.  
  
An unfortunate crewmember was tossed through the air and slammed headfirst into the navigation controls.  
  
The shockwave knocked out the Gamma Hydrae's thrust engines. A moment later the Captain realized that the gravity generator was also down as she started to float out of the command chair. She quickly pulled herself into the chair and held herself there.  
  
{Wonderful, now we are adrift in space,} the Captain thought. {If another Hegemony warship finds us now we are up a creek without a paddle.}  
  
The Captain watched an unconscious crewwoman that had one her legs bent at an angle that could only be described as grotesque float across the bridge. She tore her gaze away from the woman and looked at the damage reports that were pouring in from all over the ship. She quickly ordered a medical team to the bridge and directed the Engineering Corps to make returning the gravity generator to operational status the top priority.  
  
Captain Lysia Napolipolita attempted to calculate the total amount of damage done to the Gamma Hydrae. The damage was serious to be sure but the Captain was well pleased with the outcome. Her first time commanding a capital ship in combat was a decisive victory.  
  
Bouyed by the victory over the Hegemony vessel Lysia Napolipolita knew that the Princess would be found and what that would mean for her and the entire Napolipolita family. There could be no doubt that great things were in store for her.  
  
  
  
  
  
Commander Jons Sparfel looked over the four rugged men standing at attention before him. He had handpicked these men for the mission they were about to undertake. They were not only the bravest but also the most competent men in the crew of the Altair.  
  
Like many officers in the Galactic Fleet Commander Sparfel was given to pomposity. "I know that you will not fail because failure means that you will not have only failed me but failed the entire Hegemony. I need not tell you the price for failure."  
  
The men nodded at the less than subtle threat. Failure on a mission this important would have unpleasant consequences for all involved.  
  
Satisfied that the men understood his message Sparfel dismissed them. As he watched the four men crawl through the hatch to the Altair's small shuttle the Commander thought of the odds of actually finding the Cygnan Princess. He knew that the odds weren't good. The Princess had the same chance of actually being alive as Sparfel had of becoming the next Hegemon. He would be thrilled if his men even found her body but the odds were against even that much of the Cygnan Princess being left.  
  
  
  
  
  
Junior Lieutenant Lawrence Yashida awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. He reached out in the dark for the phone and ended up knocking it off the nightstand. Muttering some four letter words under his breath he turned the light on and picked the phone up off the floor.  
  
"Yes, what is it?" he grumbled into the phone.  
  
"Aren't we grumpy this morning?" Sergeant Instructor Korina Winsley replied.  
  
"It's four thirty in the morning!" Lawrence retorted. "There had better be a good reason for calling me or else you'll find yourself doing K.P. for the next month."  
  
"You'd make your own girlfriend do K.P. ? That's heartless," Korina said.  
  
"That's true," Lawrence admitted. "In that case I'll only have you cleaning out the latrines."  
  
"Huh! Well I hope that the fact that Dr. Daitokuji is in labor is a good enough reason for this phone call," Korina said.  
  
"What?!  
  
"In labor, as in giving birth," Korina said. "You do know that when a women gets pregnant she eventually gives birth to a baby don't you? Or didn't they teach that in sex ed. where you're from?"  
  
"But I thought she wasn't due for a while yet," Lawrence said.  
  
"So she's a bit premature, it happens," Korina told him. "Anyway, I thought you would want to know. Plus, I thought you might want to come down to the infirmary for moral support."  
  
"The only thing I'm doing right now is going back to sleep," Lawrence replied. "She has you and her husband for moral support."  
  
"I see," Korina said. "I'm sure that she'll be very understanding when you tell her that you felt your sleep was more important than being here for her when she's giving birth."  
  
"Being there for her? What am I gonna do, hold her hand?" asked Lawrence.  
  
"It's the principle of the thing," Korina said.  
  
"Will you shut up if I come down?" Lawrence asked.  
  
"Absolutely, I'll be so quiet you won't know I'm even here," Korina answered.  
  
"Liar," Lawrence retorted. "Okay, I'm on my way."  
  
  
  
End of Part III 


End file.
